TEMPLE, Texas — After the sudden death of 43-year-old Billy Gordon of Temple, his sister Stacy Gordon is speaking out about who her brother was and what she believes led up to his death.
Gordon died after being tased four times within two minutes when a Temple Police officer responded to a welfare call on Oct. 3.
"The officer, whether or not he was guilty, that's for the Texas Rangers to figure out," Stacy Gordon explained.
While Gordon is disappointed in how Temple Police officers decided to handle her brother, she puts more blame on the rehabilitation facility that denied him care five days before the incident.
Gordon told 6 News her brother suffered from an addiction to crack cocaine for 22 years. He visited a rehab facility in Belton to admit himself for drug addiction, according to Stacy, but he was quickly denied for an unjust reason.
"She said he had to keep up with the walking people in his wheelchair and that's why he couldn't go," Gordon explained. "That's what I'm upset about. My brother was not court ordered to go there. He went there out of the willingness of his heart and we were already told he was accepted, and they had saved the bed."
Even with her brother allegedly being denied care, Gordon says police officers could have done a better job at helping her brother rather than continuously tasing him.
"I wouldn't have done it that way," Gordon said. "If I couldn't get Billy down with two officers, I would have called for more and I would have physically held him down. I wouldn't have tased him."
Billy Gordon was a plumber and was well known in the Temple community, says his sister. However, it was a constant battle getting her brother help with his addiction for a large portion of his life. Stacy Gordon claims he was sober for a month before he died, but it is not yet known if he was on any drugs at the time of the incident.
Gordon encourages people with family members that are fighting addiction to never give up on them because the journey isn't an easy one, but sobriety can happen.
"Don't ever give up on getting them help even if they do it over and over again," Gordon said. "I'm curious to know how God's gonna do everything and work it for our good and our family's good."
Gordon says she was informed by police that she would be receiving Billy's autopsy report and body camera footage of the incident later this week.