Democratic U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett confirmed that a man killed by Dallas police in a standoff last week had served as part of her security team, according to an update she posted after authorities announced the case. Crockett said the 39-year-old had provided security for her for years while using a fraudulent identity, and she said her team followed U.S. House procedure when contracting security.
Crockett said she and her staff were unaware that the man had been acting under an alias, adding that he had always maintained positive relationships in the community. She also said the man, who had worked as “Mike King,” had helped provide security for her for years and had worked with multiple law enforcement agencies, including the Capitol Police, though a Capitol Police spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Dallas Police Department said the man lived as “Mike King” for years and operated security businesses that hired off-duty officers. Officials said his real identity was exposed after Irving police issued a bulletin about a vehicle with stolen government plates that a Dallas officer had seen while working with him on a security job about six months earlier.
Dallas police said officers attempted to pull him over on March 11, and he fled, escaping a brief chase. Officials said he was later located again in a hospital parking garage and that officers then negotiated with him for hours before he was shot and killed after stepping out of the vehicle and drawing a handgun.
Crockett said her statement reflected what she learned about the man’s past and said it did not “fit the person we came to know as Mike King.” In the statement, she said his death “evokes a range of emotions,” and she said her heart grieves the loss of someone she knew and “the lost good that could have come from his redemption.”
Dallas Police Department Deputy Chief William Kenneth said investigators did not discover the man’s true identity until after Crockett’s campaign for the Democratic nomination in the U.S. Senate race had ended. Crockett, who previously worked as a public defender, also acknowledged in the statement that the man had a prior criminal history and said she and her team did not believe he had been charged with any violent offenses.
Kenneth said authorities later determined that the man posed as a federal officer under the “Specialty Dignitary Police,” an agency officials said did not exist. Kenneth said the man created identification cards for that purported agency and also had two active felony theft warrants from 2017, a parole violation, two vehicles with stolen government plates, and multiple stolen firearms, including the handgun he produced before being shot.