COLLEGE STATION, TX — As KRHD previously reported, on Jan 21., around 1 A.M., a surveillance effort by a College Station police unit over resident, Ryan Stallings, ended in a fatal officer-involved shooting.
At the time, the CS Special Investigations Unit believed Stallings to be transporting large amounts of narcotics inside his vehicle.
CS police are now confirming, Celeste Perez, Stallings' romantic partner, was inside of the vehicle at the time of the traffic stop in the 1300 block of Earl Rudder Freeway.
During said stop, the officers instructed them to exit their vehicle, as officers state, they had reason to believe said vehicle contained narcotics.
From there, Stallings confessed to CS police that he had a handgun next him, inside the center compartment of his vehicle.
At that time, Stallings was repeatedly warned to not reach for said handgun. However, Stallings chose not to comply, and lunged for his handgun; thus, forcing a CS officer to defend themselves, " as he was trained to do in such a situation, when his life is threatened with imminent death, or serious bodily injury.", according to the news release from CS police.
Following gunfire, Stallings was reportedly left, "immediately incapacitated", at which time, the other CS officers present, called for paramedics to arrive.
However, as the news release states, Stallings had suffered immediate critical injury, and died on the scene.
Investigators later searched the vehicle, and recovered a large quantity of illegal narcotics, including about 2.3 kilos of cocaine, and 1.0 kilo of MDMA (also known as Ecstasy or Molly).
Upon investigation, Perez admitted to CS police she was dating Stallings, and the two were currently living at the same address as well. Perez also admitted to traveling from College Station, to another city in Texas, in attempt to traffic a wholesale amount of MDMA, and cocaine, to Brazos County.
Said joint residence, was searched under authority of a search warrant, around 5 a.m., that same morning.
During this search warrant, at least 400 grams each of cocaine, Adderall, and THC were located. Also located, was a working digital scale with," a white powdery substance, and packaging material, consistent with street level drug sales."; the news release states.
At the moment, these are the total preliminary values of narcotics found at the residence.
• 1.0 kilo of “Molly”
• 3.9 kilos of cocaine
• 8.7 kilos of Adderall (21,673 pills)
• 0.9 kilos of Xanax (4,505 pills)
• 0.6 kilos of THC
• 61 cartridges of THC
• 2.1 kilos of marijuana
In total, said narcotics have a total approximate weight of over 17 kilos, with an estimated value of $452,800.
Additionally, about $10,000 in cash seized from the residence, is believed by CS police, to be the proceeds of their illegal narcotics sales.
Based off the narcotics located at the residence, and inside at the vehicle, Celeste Perez was arrested on two counts of Manufacture/Delivery of a Controlled Substance, Penalty Group 1 and three counts of Manufacture/Delivery of a Controlled Substance, Penalty Group 2.
Addressing their use of force, CS police released the following statement:
"Each year, we average about 100,000 citizen contacts, which lead to the use force about 100 times. This is about half the national average. Determination for using force, and the level of force used, is based upon the officer’s evaluation of the situation in light of the totality of the circumstances known to the officer at the time the force is applied. The determination is based upon what a reasonably prudent officer would use under the same or similar situations, rather than the perfect vision of hindsight."
CS police went on to note, the last time a College Station Police Officer used lethal force, was on Aug 13. 2012, in response to a suspect’s shooting rampage on Fidelity Street.
In their closing, CS police shared the following sentiment in their news release:
"The outcome of Stallings’s actions during this narcotics investigation is tragic, and we are saddened by the grief the family and friends of the deceased must be feeling during this difficult time."
As of Jan 27., three different agencies are conducting concurrent investigations into this incident: the College Station Police Department, the Texas Rangers, and the Brazos County District Attorney’s Office.
CS police say, when their investigation is concluded, it will be presented to the Brazos County District Attorney’s Office for review.