12/27/1992
   HONDO, Texas (UPI) -- Fired Houston police officer Scott
Tschirhart, who hoped his new job as a Medina County sheriff's
deputy would give him a new start on his home turf, has again been
accused of abuse on the job.
   Two men have claimed in civil rights complaints filed the FBI
that Tschirhart beat them while placing them under arrest.
   Critics say Tschirhart, who shot and killed three men in a
seven-year span in Houston, should be fired from new job before he
kills someone else.
   In a letter to The Dallas Morning News, Tschirhart denied the two
men's claims, saying "People try to use my past as an excuse to file
complaints."
   The three men shot in Houston were black; the two men who accused
him of roughing them up in Medina County are Hispanic.
   Only seven months after starting his law enforcement career with
the Houston Police Department, Tschirhart shot and killed a
suspected car thief. In a July 1985 scuffle, he shot a 24-year-old
man.
   But the November 1989 killing of offduty security guard Byrun
Gillum is what got him fired. Tschirhart, claiming he believed
Gillum was reaching for a gun, fired eight shots into Gillum during
a traffic stop.
   Tschirhart's 1990 firing was upheld by an arbitrator but a grand
jury declined to indict him. Scott Sanes, a lawyer for Gillum's
family, won a $350,000 settlement from the city of Houston in
September.
   Just months after Tschirhart started his new job as a Medina
County deputy, Roland Alfaro of Castroville claimed the officer
struck him three times with a police baton in one of his knees.
Alfaro's case against Tschirhart ended in a mistrial.
   Less than a month after Alfaro's arrest, Tschirhart was accused
of striking the head of a 16-year-old youth who ran away from him
during a domestic disturbance call.