Fort Worth police officer fired two years after shooting man holding BBQ fork

A former Fort Worth police officer was fired Tuesday, two years after shooting a man in the arm who was holding a BBQ fork.

Courtney Johnson was fired by FWPD Chief Joel Fitzgerald despite his claims that his shooting of Craigory Adams was an accident. Fitzgerald said it was a difficult decision, but decided to fire Johnson for the use of inappropriate force.

"The true fact of the matter in this case is inappropriate application of a firearm," Fitzgerald said. "That shot led to Mr. Adams being critically injured and Mr. Adams should not have been the subject of gunfire."

Johnson went on trial for aggravated assault by an officer, but there was a hung jury and the case ended in a mistrial. The Tarrant County District Attorney decided not to retry the case.

Adams was carrying a BBQ fork, but Johnson said he thought Adams had a knife. Johnson was accused of using a racist remark, but Fitzgerald said that was not a part of the internal investigation.

"There was no true allegation, other than in the trial, of any kind of racist complaint," Fitzgerald said. "No proof, no audio, obviously of any racist complaint. Nor did Mr. Adams per se say that. We have no reason to believe that that was a factor here."

Johnson can appeal his firing with the Civil Service Commission to get his job back. He told FOX4 he still wants to be a police officer.