Update: Bryan Police Officer William Bill Cross Resigns During Internal Investigation Into Shooting, Which Keeps Findings Confidential

Bryan, Texas

An update on a story from Bryan, Texas, involving William Bill Cross, a Bryan Police Officer accused of firing on an unarmed suspect and hitting a by-stander back in May. A grand jury declined on indicting the officer, but an internal investigation was underway.


Cross turned in his resignation sometime prior to a Tuesday press conference called by Bryan PD. In that same meeting, it was announced that an internal investigation into the May 6 shooting has been closed.

No information on the probe will be released due to Cross' resignation, per civil service regulations.

According to police, Cross opened fire on 20-year-old Johnnie Harris Jr. after the suspect reportedly reached for Cross' gun. The struggle ensued at the intersection of Main Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Street in the Downtown area, this after police say Harris had run from officers.

Harris, an MHMR patient who had a criminal record and was said to be familiar to Cross and other BPD officers, had been called in by a Texas Avenue store owner that day for possible intoxication.

A construction worker who was at work in the area was also hit by a stray bullet and critically injured, but was later released from hospital care.

On June 2, a Brazos County grand jury chose not to indict Cross in the incident, a decision that angered many residents of the neighborhood where Harris lived and where the shooting occurred. Witnesses said the 14-year police veteran fired on a defenseless Harris while he was on the ground.