Activists are demanding that Austin Police Chief Brian Manley be terminated and Mayor Steve Adler on Monday called for an investigation in the wake of a police officer’s fatal shooting of a man.
Michael Ramos, 42, was killed Friday evening after an officer shot at him as he slowly drove away from police outside an apartment complex on South Pleasant Valley Road, video taken by witnesses shows. Officers responded to the complex after receiving a 911 call at 6:30 p.m. that two people might be using drugs in a vehicle and that one of the people in the car had a gun, police said.
“I’m very disturbed by the spectator’s video I’ve now seen, on which Mike Ramos does not appear to threaten but ends up dead,” Adler said in a statement.
The Texas Rangers will be part of the investigation into the fatal shooting, Manley said Monday.
When police arrived, Ramos initially got out of the vehicle and put his hands in the air but asked officers to put their guns down when they commanded him to walk toward them, witness video from the shooting shows. Ramos got back into his car when officer Mitchell Pieper fired a round from a beanbag gun at him, according to Manley. Ramos closed the car door and started to pull out of the parking lot when officer Christopher Taylor fired his rifle.
The car then crashed into a parked vehicle, and Ramos was taken to a hospital, where he died at 7:26 p.m., Manley said.
Taylor was previously involved in an incident in which police shot and killed a man at a downtown Austin condo last year, Manley said.
“This is a trying time for our community,” Manley said. “I share your concerns, and that’s why we’re going to the extent we’re going to, to ensure that we not only conduct a thorough investigation that we always do, but that we do it in a way that fosters community trust.”
He also offered his condolences to Ramos’ family Monday.
Manley declined to say whether Ramos had a gun with him. Police searched the car after Ramos was killed, and Manley said he won’t share the results of that search just yet.
Manley said the car that Ramos was in had been involved in incidents of burglary and evading police. He did not share additional details about those incidents.
Adler said he told City Manager Spencer Cronk that the city needs a “quick and complete assessment of this shooting and then an immediate sharing of all relevant information with the community.”
As with any Austin police shooting, authorities will already be conducting criminal and internal investigations into the incident, police have said. The Austin office of police oversight, which is under the city manager’s office, will also review the shooting. Adler did not respond to phone calls seeking clarification about whether he wants a fourth concurrent investigation into the shooting.
Austin City Council Members Greg Casar and Jimmy Flannigan also expressed concerns over the shooting.
“Michael Ramos should be alive. David Joseph and Larry Jackson should be alive,” Casar wrote on Twitter, referring to others killed in Austin police shootings. “APD has de-escalation rules. It has training. But those things don’t seem to be enough. There will be an investigation, but that isn’t good enough on its own. We cannot rest until we transform our systems.”
Christopher Daniels, who said he witnessed Ramos’ shooting Friday, said the shooting didn’t seem justified.
“Why shoot him?” Daniels said. “It doesn’t make sense.”
More than 30 community organizations in Austin and Texas on Monday signed a letter calling on city officials to remove Manley; his chief of staff, Troy Gay; and Assistant City Manager Rey Arellano. Activists also urged city leaders to delay the June police academy class and immediately implement training reforms about de-escalation.
“This deadly shooting demonstrates what happens when long-awaited changes are shelved or not taken seriously,” the letter says. “De-escalation could have prevented this death.”
Activists said they believe the officer was quick to shoot Ramos because he was a person of color. Manley said the man was Hispanic; activists said they were told by the man’s friends and family that he was black and Hispanic.
An investigation into the Austin Police Department earlier this month found issues of racial bias that it said should be addressed.
In a Zoom videoconference Monday, activists said they didn’t understand why officers thought firing at Ramos with a beanbag gun would persuade him to comply with officers’ commands to approach them.
“I can tell you, from my personal experience, when I got hit with a beanbag gun — when I was hit with a rubber bullet — I thought I’d been shot,” said David Johnson, with Grassroots Leadership.
“Manley’s and Arellano’s failure to adequately reform the crime lab, Manley’s public statements about Austin’s homeless plan, and Manley’s public refusal to cease certain unnecessary marijuana arrests lead us to believe that public safety leadership is actively undermining change,” the letter says.
The letter, which is addressed to Cronk, Adler and the City Council, is signed by groups including Texas Appleseed, the Austin Justice Coalition, Grassroots Leadership, Measure, Just Liberty, the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, Indivisible Austin and the Austin Community Law Center.
Travis County District Attorney Margaret Moore on Monday said she wants Austin police officials to release the body camera footage of the shooting soon.
Policy on shootings, moving vehicles
Austin police policy allows officers to shoot someone only in order to prevent the person’s escape if the person inflicted serious injury or death, or if there is potential for it.
The department’s rules also allow officers to shoot people to protect themselves or others from imminent threat of serious injury or death, which includes when police believe a vehicle is being used as a deadly weapon.
In 2012, then-Police Chief Art Acevedo unveiled a policy change about how police could confront people in moving vehicles.
Acevedo barred officers from placing themselves in the paths of cars speeding toward them “since doing so may increase the likelihood of having to resort to deadly force,” he wrote.
“Disabling a vehicle by use of a firearm will only be attempted by units specially trained in and equipped for this tactic and only under extraordinary circumstances,” the policy said in 2012.
Manley said he removed this line in the policy because the Austin Police Department has never had specialized units to disable vehicles. The policy barring officers from placing themselves in the paths of speeding cars is still in place, Manley said.
American-Statesman staff writer Kelsey Bradshaw contributed to this report.
Credit: Source link
