US Army sergeant Daniel Perry is released from Texas prison within an hour of Gov. Greg Abbott’s pardon for shooting murder of AK-47-wielding BLM protester

Daniel Perry was released from a Texas prison about an hour after Governor Greg Abbott pardoned him for killing a Black Lives Matter protester killed during the 2020 riots.

Perry was convicted of murder last year protester Garrett Foster in Austin in July 2020. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Abbott requested that the state parole board investigate Perry’s case in April 2023 — leading to a unanimous approval vote announced Thursday.

In a statement after the vote was announced, Abbott cited Texas’ “Stand Your Ground” laws, which allow people to use deadly force if they feel they are in immediate danger.

“Texas has one of the strongest ‘Stand Your Ground’ self-defense laws that cannot be overturned by a jury or a progressive prosecutor,” Abbott said.

‘I thank the Council for the thorough investigation and I approve their clemency recommendation.’

In its unanimous ruling recommending Perry’s pardon, the parole board said it was “delving into the intricacies” of his case.

“The investigative efforts include a careful review of relevant documents, from police reports to court records, witness statements and interviews with individuals involved in the case,” the board said.

In addition to the full pardon, Perry will also have his firearms rights restored, the board announced.

At his trial, Perry faced a 99-year prison sentence as prosecutors portrayed him as a racist, unhinged Army soldier who planned to kill rioters, including bringing up text messages in which he told a friend that he “might would go to Dallas to shoot looters.”

He countered that he was acting in self-defense and feared he would be shot by Foster, who was legally carrying an AK-47 at the time he was shot.

The case became a touchstone issue after Abbott sought Perry’s pardon, as critics said the move set a “dangerous” precedent and was motivated by “political gamesmanship.”

In February, Foster’s mother Shiela Foster spoke out against the request for clemency, saying it was another painful moment after her son’s murder.

“I’m actually stunned, I just can’t believe this is my life and this is what’s happening, and it has left me overwhelmed with fear and the ability to move on,” she shared CBS Austin.

On the day Foster was killed, Perry had driven 70 miles from Fort Worth to Austin and was driving for Uber to make extra money while stationed at the Fort Hood military base.

Moments before the shooting, Perry had just dropped off a rideshare customer and turned onto a street full of protesters.

Perry claimed he tried to move peacefully through the crowd but was blocked before Foster pointed his AK-47 at him, he said.

The state argued that Perry sped into the crowd, but that was disputed by the defense’s expert witnesses, who used data to track his car’s speed. The expert testified that Perry slowed down as his car entered the demonstration.

Witnesses said they did not see Foster raise his weapon, and in a video of the incident streamed live on Facebook, a car could be heard honking before several shots rang out and protesters screamed and ran for safety.

During his trial, jurors were presented with a litany of texts and social media posts that showed Perry’s disdain for the BLM protests that gripped the nation following the killing of George Floyd.

This included a Facebook message to a friend in May 2020, just weeks before he shot Foster, in which he said he “might have to kill a few people.”

Other messages included “White Power” memes and a 2019 text message in which he said it was “a shame we couldn’t get paid for hunting Muslims in Europe.”

“It’s official that I’m a racist because I don’t agree with people acting like animals in the zoo,” he said in another post. “I was on the side of the demonstrators until they started the looting and violence.”

He added another message from the same day. he said the Black Lives Matter protests were like a “zoo full of monkeys freaking out and throwing their shit.”

Perry’s lawyers said the messages were “barracks humor,” and several Army colleagues testified that Perry was not a known racist.

When he was shot, Foster was the full-time caregiver for his fiancée Whitney Mitchell, a quadruple amputee.

Testifying against Perry at his trial, Mitchell told jurors through tears how her life had changed since his death – citing the fact that Foster had been her sole caregiver for the past eleven years.

“It’s hard every day I’m there. It’s hard to sleep in my bed because he’s not there,” she said.

“He was my main caregiver for 11 years, and I had friends who took care of me and had to teach me how to do all the things Garrett did.

“It’s hard because I had to get comfortable being vulnerable.”