WICHITA FALLS (KFDX/KJTL) — In July of last year, Lance Murray turned himself in after a warrant was issued for his arrest in connection to an altercation involving his children at Castaway Cove.

Recently, the misdemeanor charge against Murray — Interfering with Public Duties — was dismissed.

Last summer, Lance Murray’s sons frequented Castaway Cove.

One of Murray’s sons told him that he kept having an issue with another boy his age. Their feud escalated on July 17, 2020, when Murray’s son got into an altercation with the boy, and a lifeguard stepped in.

“He pulled both of them out, and they were going back, and my son said ‘Look what you did, you got us kicked out.’ The little boy punched him,” Lance Murray said.

From there, Murray said the boy’s grandmother came over and started grabbing his son by the neck, leading him to the office. As Murray’s other two sons stepped in, Murray said his sons were threatened to be shot by the boy’s mother.

Murray said then three off-duty Wichita County deputies working security stepped in and started to separate his sons violently, while his sons tried to explain the situation.

“You immediately grab one, you push my fifteen year old in his face like you muffed him, while Officer Brasher grabbed him, kicked his feet from underneath his body, my son landed on his ear,” Murray said. “Smack dead on the concrete. Knocked him dizzy for probably fifteen, twenty seconds.”

While this was happening to his oldest son, Murray said his middle son was also being held violently by a deputy. He also claimed his sons were threatened by a deputy.

After he sent his sons to the car, Murray talked with the deputies and asked them for their names and badge numbers. He said they refused to give them to him, but a WFPD officer got the information for him.

“After I left the parking lot, I took my kids immediately to the hospital,” Murray said. “They were examined. My son’s knee was messed up, his ankle was messed up, his hip. He had a knot like the size of a plum growing on the back of his head, and his hearing was messed up.”

Murray said one of his sons also had an asthma attack and a bloody mouth as a result of being choked by a deputy.

Murray then filed a complaint against the three deputies. After he filed the complaint, his thirteen-year-old son was arrested, which caused Murray to lose custody of him.

His son was also put on probation and kicked out of school, and there was a warrant out for Murray’s arrest for interfering with public duties.

When Murray recently arrived in court, ready to combat the charge, the District Attorney’s office dropped it.

“They never told me why, but I kind of already figured,” he said. “Everything that the police said I did was false.”

Murray claimed his sons have been traumatized from the incident.

“I was scared to go anywhere. My kids were scared to leave the house,” Murray said. “They’re thinking ‘They already lied on you, they beat us up, they’re making it seem like you’re a threat, like you were the problem.’ They have to paint this picture that I was the problem coming in, so it can overshadow everything that they did.”

That’s why Murray is now pursuing legal charges against the deputies.

“I’ve talked to each and every last one of my kids,” he said. “If this happens to you or whatever, just wait. It won’t be like that for long, I’ll fix it. If it happens to me, don’t worry about it. I can sit through that. You’re not going to intimidate us at all. That card is not on the table, that’s not going to happen. Why would they be intimidated if they have me behind them?”

A father sticking up for his kids who he says have been done wrong.

In a statement from Sheriff David Duke, Duke said a Justice of the Peace found probable cause for Murray’s arrest and that the deputies on scene made the right decision by de-escalating the situation and pursuing a warrant later.

Duke also said Murray’s claims in his complaint were not substantiated, and Murray and his son were arrested on witness information. He said Murray refused to stop interrupting the investigation after being told several times to step back.

Sheriff Duke also claimed that some of Murray’s allegations are false.