Ex-East Texas Officer Convicted in 2014 Slaying of Police Chief

BELTON (AP) – A former East Texas law enforcement officer has been convicted of capital murder in the 2014 fatal shooting of Little River-Academy police Chief Lee Dixon. David Gene Risner faces the death penalty or life in prison without parole for the slaying as Dixon responded to a report of a man with a gun. A Bell County jury on Monday convicted Risner in the June 2014 death of the only police officer in Little River-Academy, a town of about 2,000 located 60 miles northeast of Austin. The penalty phase was scheduled Tuesday in Belton. Law enforcement records show Risner formerly was a police officer in Edgewood, Gun Barrel City, and Grand Saline. He also worked for the Van Zandt County Sheriff’s Office.