The trial of a Texas man charged with capital murder in connection with the 2018 fatal shooting of a police officer has been delayed after he swallowed at least one razor blade, according to officials.
The capital murder trial of Timothy Kion Huff, 36, had been scheduled to start Tuesday in connection with the death of Fort Worth Police Officer Garrett Hull in September 2018.
In court Tuesday, state District Judge George Gallagher learned that Huff “swallowed at least one razor blade,” the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office told NBC News, and as a result his trial was delayed to June 6.
Huff was taken to John Peter Smith Hospital, where he will be “monitored for two or three days to see if he passes the blades,” a spokesperson for the district attorney's office said.
Huff complained of chest pains Tuesday morning and was taken to the hospital for evaluation. There, he admitted to staff members that he had “accidentally swallowed a razor blade,” the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office told NBC Dallas Fort-Worth.
Inmates in the general population are allowed safety razors for shaving, the sheriff’s office told the station. It’s not clear when he swallowed the blade.
An attorney for Huff did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Huff was one of three men believed to be behind 17 robberies targeting Latino bars in and around Fort Worth in 2018, police said.
On Sept. 14, 2018, undercover Fort Worth police officers spotted Huff, then 33, along with suspects Dacion Steptoe, then 23, and Samuel Mayfield, also then 23, at a local bar. After police confronted the men, a gun battle ensued, and Officer Hull was shot in the head, police said at the time.
Steptoe, who opened fire and was believed to be the one who shot Hull, was killed in a shootout with officers, police said.
Huff and Mayfield were charged with capital murder in Hull’s death. Mayfield will be tried separately.
Hull, 40, was a 17-year veteran of the department.