Texas precinct hires cop fired for killing 93-year-old woman: 'I commend him on a job well done'

A former Texas police officer who was fired after shooting a 93-year-old woman is once again working in law enforcement as a "volunteer" deputy.

While serving as a police officer in Hearne last year, Stephen Stem shot and killed 93-year-old Pearlie Golden, who had fired a .38 revolver into the ground.

Prior to that, he had killed 28-year-old Tederalle Satchell in 2012 during a foot chase. Satchell reportedly did not have a weapon when he was shot, but had been carrying one earlier.

Both Golden and Satchell were black, which Stem insisted was unrelated to the shootings. The Wire pointed out that killing two people in less than two years was "a remarkable statistic for a police officer in a small town of fewer than 4,500 people that gets about 10 calls a day."

Prior to the shootings, Stem had been suspended in 2010 for failing to report an alleged indecency with child incident before going on vacation. He was suspended once more in 2012 for pointing a gun at an innocent bystander.

Robertson County grand juries declined to indict Stem for either killing, but Golden's death was the last straw for the Hearne Council, which unanimously voted to fire him last May.

Over the weekend, The Eaglereported that Stem had been volunteering as a deputy constable in Falls County Precinct 3 since Oct 27.

Falls County Precinct 3 Constable Richard Aleman told the paper that he had no paid deputies, and that Stem had helped with traffic control and other law enforcement activities. And he praised Stem for shooting the 93-year-old woman, saying that it was "part of the job."

"I commend him on a job well done," Aleman said. "I watched the tape and when someone points a gun, you gotta do what you gotta do. It didn't concern me because that's part of the job."

Watch the video below from KBTX, broadcast Sept. 10, 2014.