BY MARY JANE FARMER

HERALD DEMOCRAT

Investigations, internal and external, into the Grayson County deputy-involved shooting of an armed suspect on Jan. 27 are still in the works, but on Thursday morning the Grayson County Sheriff's Office released some additional information on the incident. Included in the released information, in response to a Texas Public Information Act request, were recordings of the 911 calls.

The suspect has been identified as Randy Allen Thomas, 27, of the Pottsboro area, GCSO 1st Lt. David Hawley said. Thomas remains in Grayson County Jail on an outstanding Grady, Okla., warrant and a charge of felon in possession of a firearm. Further charges, if any, will depend on the outcome of the investigations.

The Sheriff's Office asked the Texas Rangers to conduct an independent investigation, standard procedure for most law enforcement agencies when there is an officer-involved shooting. Texas Ranger Brad Oliver is currently working on the case. However, he is also temporarily assigned, as are many other Texas Rangers, to the Texas-Mexico border, spending most of his week there and returning to conduct his North Texas investigations on the weekend, Sheriff Keith Gary said.

Internally, Grayson County Sheriff's investigators also are conducting an investigation, through a team consisting of Assistant Chief Deputy Tom Rains, Lt. Jay Whitney, Sgt. Rickey Wheeler, and investigators Jerry Hudman, Sean Lewers and Chris Gautier.

At 5:11 p.m. Jan. 27, a woman's stepmother called 911 saying that the suspect had assaulted her stepdaughter, and threatened her with a gun.

It was more than three minutes before a deputy was notified, according to the recording.

The caller and dispatcher were disconnected about six minutes into the 911 call, and a couple of minutes later, the caller called back, saying, "We are headed out there now, but don't want to go in until the cops get there." The caller said all the family's attempts to reach the victim by telephone were unanswered. During this second call to 911, the step-mother said the victim had just called her, crying and upset and screaming. The step-mother said the suspect had beaten the victim before and the victim previously had taken refuge in the Women's Crisis Center.

At 5:28 p.m., the caller said, "We've got her in the car. He choked her and all that."

Upon deputies' arrival after 5:28 p.m., they were told the suspect was alone in the house and was armed with a gun.

Deputies approached the residence and tried to get the suspect to come outside and speak with them. He refused, Hawley said, but then opened the door and "confronted the officers with a gun in his hand."

One of the responding deputies fired his weapon, hitting the suspect in the upper right leg. They placed the suspect into custody. An ambulance took him to a nearby hospital to be treated for the wound, and then deputies placed the suspect in Grayson County Jail.

The Grady, Okla., warrant, according to Oklahoma court records, is based on a 2008 charge of domestic assault and battery by strangulation, for which he received a 5-year deferred adjucation sentence in January 2009. The records further show that the warrant was issued Oct. 27 after a reported violation. Oklahoma court records show Thomas to be from Chickasaw, in Grady County, southwest of Norman, Okla.

Hawley said Thomas remains in Grayson County Jail in lieu of $100,000 in bail.