A jury is set to begin in the killing of a Texas Tech police officer.

LUBBOCK, Texas (KSBD) – A capital murder trial for a man accused of shooting and killing a Texas Tech University police officer in 2017. Begins February 6, 2023.

Hollis Daniels III, 24, faces the death penalty or life in prison.

The former Texas Tech student is accused of killing Officer Floyd East Jr. at the university’s police department.

Full coverage: Shooting at the Texas Tech Police Department

The shooting happened at 7:44 p.m., but police contact with Daniels began earlier that day.

Lubbock police officers said they received a call about a stolen firearm at 1:11 a.m. on Oct. 9, 2017. The caller said Daniels had stolen a gun from a home near Indiana and 28th Streets.

Minutes later, officers said they spotted Daniels about three miles from that home and pulled him over. Officers said they searched for Daniels and did not find a weapon. Daniel refuses to let them search his car, so they finally let him go.

Former Lubbock Police Chief Greg Stevens said at a news conference in 2017, shortly after Daniels was arrested.

“There wasn’t enough reason to search him or get a warrant for the vehicle,” Stevens said.

Later that day, the Texas Tech Police Department got a call from a man who said he heard gunshots from Daniels’ dorm room.

Officer East was one of the responding officers.

Those officers said they found drugs and drug paraphernalia in Daniels’ room and took him into custody.

As East was in the process of booking Daniels, he was shot in the back of the head. Eastern colleagues reported that Daniels was nowhere to be found when they heard the gunshots at 7:44 p.m.

Texas Tech dispatch contacted the Lubbock Police Department at 7:46 p.m.PD said their first officer responded at 7:49 p.m.

The university was on lockdown, and this quickly became a multi-agency manhunt.

At 9:26 p.m., a Texas Tech officer met Daniels at the old City Hall Coliseum.

Daniels was taken into custody and has been in the Lubbock County Detention Center since then.

In the year We sat down with Texas Tech Police Chief Kyle Bonnat in 2018 and asked him how Daniels ended up with a gun in the police department.

“Our officers conducted themselves in a professional manner. Everything that needed to be done was done. This was a very unique situation. I think once the trial goes through it will be clearer. There is one person who can tell you with absolute certainty how this happened and that is the suspect himself,” Bonnat said.

No cameras or recording devices will be allowed in the courtroom during this trial.

KCBD will have staff at the courthouse and provide daily updates.

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