The Republican governor of Texas said he was ready to pardon an Uber driver convicted on Friday of killing a protester during mass protests against racism and police brutality in 2020, sparking fresh controversy, AFP reported.

Daniel Perry, a 33-year-old military man who drove Uber in his spare time, found himself at the center of a crowd of protesters in Austin, in the southern United States, in July 2020.

At the trial, his lawyers claimed self-defense. They alleged that he fired five times with a gun at 28-year-old Garrett Foster, who approached his car and pointed a machine gun at him.

Prosecutors said he could have swerved the car and avoided the collision.

According to the Austin American-Statesman, a local newspaper, they presented messages that Daniel Perry posted on social media before the shooting, in which he wrote, among other things, “I can kill a few people on the way to work, this is a riot on the first floor of my apartment “.

After two days of deliberations, a people’s jury found him guilty of murder. He faces life imprisonment. The verdict will be announced soon.

Even before the appeal, Gov. Greg Abbott said he has asked the state Pardons Office to review Daniel Perry’s case. “I stand ready to approve his recommendation as soon as it reaches my desk,” he said in a statement released late Saturday.

He explained that he wanted to protect his state’s “vital “Stand Your Ground” self-defense law, which allows a person to use deadly force if they believe they are in grave danger, even if there is another way to avoid it. danger”.