KCBD Investigates Discounting Danger: Lubbock police say they investigated teenager’s complaints about Jamie Lee Pruett weeks before the deadly shooting

LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) - A 17-year-old said she warned law enforcement about Jamie Lee Pruett weeks before deputies arrested him for a deadly shooting.

The teenager said the 49-year-old was a regular customer and was always friendly, but on February 22, he crossed a line.

“He went in for a really awkwardly tight hug that I didn’t want at all and I kind of tried to back away, but it was so tight that I couldn’t really move,” she said.

She said Pruett also showed her that he found her Facebook, which listed her phone number.

“He said I am going to call you whenever you get off work and I’ll call you tomorrow and then I am going to come in the store and see you, and I just told him I had to get back to work,” she said.

“He told me well maybe we can get you a new job and started asking me if I knew how to dance. He was also asking me if I wanted to go to the movies with him and he thought we would make a really cute couple. I’m sure everybody knows by now that he’s 49 and he has known my age since the beginning,” she said.

The teenager reported this interaction to her store manager and said she blocked Pruett on social media before she headed home.

“As soon as I was pulling out of my parking spot, that man’s truck pulled out behind mine,” she said. “I ended up driving off and I got to a stop light and I kind of looked over and it was him, and he rolled down his window and started screaming at me to roll my window down so I immediately ran that red light. I was making as many turns as I could to try to lose him and he was still trying to run me off the road and follow me,” she said.

She said she shared her location with a co-worker and called 911.

The dispatcher stayed on the phone with her, tracking her location.

Eventually, she told the dispatcher she lost him.

They hung up and she asked her parents to meet her at the Lubbock Police Department so she could file a report.

“Police told me that I could get a restraining order and if he violated the restraining order, they could arrest him on the spot,” she said.

On Tuesday, February 28, she said her family took her to the courthouse to get a protective order against Pruett.

“I encouraged her, my husband encouraged her as far as going up there to get the restraining order because this guy needs to be held accountable, so he doesn’t do this to someone else, plus for your own sanity to feel safe,” her mother said.

They said when they arrived, they were told a protective order wasn’t a possibility.

“They said we can’t do anything for you. We can’t get you a restraining order because you are a minor. I just felt like I was at a loss,” said the teenager.

Within a day or two they said a detective with the Lubbock Police Department called about the case.

“I had a detective call me and tell me that he was going to talk to him and look into him,” the teen said.

Days went by and they said they never received an update on the case.

“We never got any kind of follow-up, like this had been taken care of, which I obviously I don’t think it was,” the teen’s mother said.

Captain Leath McClure said a detective did investigate the case.

“Based on the information that was given to us and the detective who worked the case, he determined based on the statute and what we have to work with and the penal code and the CCP that this did not meet the elements,” McClure said.

“Do you know if he contacted Jamie Pruett after that?” we asked.

“It doesn’t say in the supplement if he contacted Mr. Pruett,” McClure said.

We asked McClure to walk us through the statutes for harassment and stalking.

“Harassment is going to be unwanted contact. At some point, there has to be something from the victim that says, ‘I want this contact to stop.’ We are going to need a hard and straight line that says you want this contact to stop. Stalking, on the other hand, is going to need to be something on more than one occasion that shows that that person is intentionally following you, stalking you, or harassing you. Whether it is coming up to your business, following you home from work,” McClure said.

The teenager said her employer did ban Pruett, but she wishes more could have been done.

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