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Man Surrenders After Fatally Shooting Unarmed Moroccan National Who Pulled Into His Driveway
Relatives and civil rights groups voiced their frustration when no arrests were immediately made in the shooting death of 31-year-old Adil Dgoughi.
A Texas man has turned himself in to authorities two weeks after fatally shooting an unarmed man who pulled into his driveway, according to the sheriff’s office.
On Oct. 22, 2021, Terry Duane Turner, 65, surrendered to authorities who charged him with the murder of Adil Dghoughi, 31, according to the Caldwell County Sheriff’s Office. Turner is accused of shooting Dghoughi after becoming suspicious of the victim’s car parked outside his residence on Oct. 11, at around 3:42 a.m. When deputies arrived, they found the victim with “critical, life-threatening injuries.”
Dghoughi later died at the hospital.
Turner allegedly told police that he woke up to use the bathroom when he saw an “unknown vehicle with its headlights off,” according to an arrest affidavit obtained by ABC affiliate KVUE. Turner allegedly went back to his bedroom to retrieve a handgun. When he returned, the headlights were turned on, and the driver “began to rapidly accelerate in reverse.” Turner then gave chase and shot the vehicle through the driver’s side door before returning to his home to call 911.
Turner told dispatchers, “I just killed a guy,” according to the Austin-based TV station. Turner said, “[he] tried to pull a gun on me. I shot… He started racing away, and I ran after him… He pointed a gun at me, and I shot.”
No gun was found inside or near the victim’s vehicle, according to the affidavit.
Mehdi Cherkaoui, an attorney representing the Dghoughi family, claimed Dghoughi was shot twice.
“The bullet entered [Dghoughi’s] hand before it entered his head, and the bullet exited the victim’s head,” Cherkaoui told Austin’s Fox 7 News. “And actually, there was enough force for it to travel through the passenger side window.”
According to the victim’s girlfriend, he was only about seven minutes from her home after they left a barbeque at her cousin’s house.
“His habits were to drive around and decompress and listen to music,” Sarah Todd told the Associated Press. “Something like this should not even have been questioned. If someone is murdered, whether it’s on someone’s property or out in the street, they should be automatically arrested.”
Relatives and civil rights advocacy groups including the Council On American-Islamic Relations voiced their frustration when authorities made no arrests immediately following the shooting, noting that Dghoughi was a Moroccan national of color.
“Stand your ground laws across our nation have a history of being used to commit legal violence against people of color,” said CAIR-Austin executive director Faizan Syed in a statement.
The Caldwell County Sheriff’s Office maintained that it worked hard to arrest Turner.
“Detectives have worked tirelessly on this case since the incident occurred on Oct. 11, 2021,” according to their statement. “Detectives have conducted multiple interviews and executed multiple search warrants in the course of this investigation.”
Faizan Syed, who is working on behalf of the Dghoughi family, spoke with Oxygen.com in light of Turner’s arrest.
”Overall, we’re grateful that the police department finally was able finally to arrest Terry Turner and charge him for murder,” said Syed. “However, we continue to be concerned that it took them nearly two weeks to do so. Not only that, but it took two weeks plus tons of media pressure, community pressure, and our office contacting other authorities, like the Texas Rangers, along with the Department of Justice and others, in order for them to finally take that action.”
According to CAIR, Dghoughi immigrated to the United States from Morocco in 2013 and earned his Master’s Degree in financial analysis from Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island. A GoFundMe page was created to help family pay for a funeral in Morocco.
“… We really want to create a society in which all cases of violence are treated equally under the law,” Syed told Oxygen.com. “And that those who are out to enforce the law also enforce the law equally as well.”
Terry Turner posted $150,000 bail two hours after his arrest.
