Wolfe City police officer Shaun Lucas has been arrested on a murder charge in connection to the shooting. Click here to read the story.
Jonathan Price might have been a burly, 31-year-old man, but Marcella Louis still called him her baby.
“He had a good heart. He always tried to help others. I taught him that all through the years,” Louis said.
According to family members and witnesses, a Wolfe City police officer shot and killed Price on Saturday night after an argument broke out between a couple inside a convenience store.
Witnesses said Price tried to break up the disagreement inside the store, but it spilled outside, and when officers responded to the scene, Price was the one they shot.
In that moment, Louis lost her only son. She says the world lost “a hero.”
“They took my son from me,” she said through sobs. “They took my baby.”
Price was well known in his hometown for his friendly demeanor. Many knew him as a muscular fitness trainer.
He was an employee of the Wolfe City public works department, according to family members.
Wolfe City, about an hour northeast of Dallas, has a population of about 1,500.
Price he was best known, relatives say, for his giving and supportive heart.
“Everybody loved Jonathan. Everybody,” said his sister, April Louis. “Black, white, Mexican, it doesn’t matter. He loved everybody. Everybody loved him.”
Former professional baseball player Will Middlebrooks grew up with Price in Wolfe City. In a video posted on Facebook, he talked about their close relationship.
“Jonathan was a close friend of mine from childhood,” he said. “We came up together, played T-ball together. We went to elementary school together.”
Price had been a star athlete throughout his life at Wolfe City public schools, family and friends say.
Price is Black and, while no law enforcement agency has released information beyond confirming the shooting occurred, witnesses and Price’s family say the officer is white.
Middlebrooks called for calm in his hometown while acknowledging everyone was feeling “angry, sad, and broken.”
"The last thing I want to see is that town get torn to pieces because of this," he said. "Most people in that town are behind Jonathan and everything he was about and who he is and who he was as a person."
Marcella Louis said when she heard her son had been shot, she hurried to the gas station where it happened.
“They wouldn’t let me get close to my baby,” she said. “I just wanted to hold his hands and they wouldn’t let me do that.”
“I just wanted to crawl over there,” she said.
A small memorial was set up in the gas station parking lot with a spray-painted sign that said, “RIP Jon.”
“Hope and pray for justice for Jonathan,” Middlebrooks said at the end of his video. “Love you guys.”