Police Shootings

Man charged in officer-involved shooting incident

3:30 p.m. update: Austin police identified the man shot at by an officer early Friday and the officer who pulled the trigger.Mark Guard, 26, was charged with aggravated assault on a public servant and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Police say Guard pointed a gun at officers and sparked …

  • Updated: 4:42 p.m. Friday, May 17, 2013
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Angela Orr, the mother of Ahmede Bradley, who ran from police last year, got into a fight with an officer and was shot and killed. She thinks her son’s life could have been saved by a more patient police response.

Dangerous pursuit: Austin police foot chases can lead to injuries, shootings

On April 5, 2012, when an Austin police officer stopped 35-year-old Ahmede Bradley for having music blaring from his car, Bradley bolted and ran. So junior officer Eric Copeland did what police officers often do: he took off after him, on foot, through an East Austin neighborhood. When Copeland caught …

  • 3:00 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 7, 2013
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Byron Carter Jr.

After 7 months, police shooting debate remains intense

Felisha Wallace remembers when she saw her son for the last time.Byron Carter Jr. was especially talkative, she said, and upbeat about a pending visit with his infant son.Two days later, Wallace got a phone call before the sun rose. “It’s bad,” Wallace remembers hearing. She soon learned that her …

  • Updated: 11:09 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 7, 2012

Legal claims against city have cost Austin taxpayers $14.5 million since ’06

Austin taxpayers have spent more than $14 million over the past five years to resolve or head off lawsuits against the city, such as one that blamed a fallen city power line for causing a house fire and others by people left permanently disabled by accidents involving city employees. The …

  • Updated: 1:25 p.m. Monday, Nov. 21, 2011
Jay Janner/2004 American-Statesman
Austin police cadet Angela Racine practices with her Taser at the training academy in 2004. Austin officers take an eight-hour training class on how to use the weapons that includes real-life simulations in which volunteers have the weapons used on them. When a Taser is used in the field, a supervisor goes to the scene, interviews witnesses and writes a report assessing the incident.

Austin police Taser use more than doubles after 2008 policy change, analysis shows

Austin police use of Tasers has more than doubled in the past three years as officers have started more frequently reaching for the weapons to subdue suspects, an American-Statesman analysis has found.Officers used the electric stun guns — often promoted by law enforcement as a “less lethal” option to deadly …

  • Updated: 10:55 p.m. Saturday, March 10, 2012

Man killed, 1 hurt in police shooting

This story originally was published on May 12, 2009. An Austin police officer fatally shot a man and wounded another early Monday in an apartment complex parking lot, setting off an explosive reaction by some residents who hurled bottles and other objects at investigators and shattered windows of patrol cars. …

  • Updated: 10:48 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2010
Maurice Pierce, a juvenile when the crimes he was accused of were committed, learns he will face trial as an adult.

Man linked to Austin yogurt shop slayings was forever haunted, family says

Nine months pregnant, Marisa Pierce was settling in for the night at her Plano home watching television.It was two days before Christmas, she recalled, and she was on the phone with her father in Austin to say goodnight — their nightly ritual. He was almost home, he told her, and …

  • Updated: 9:20 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2011

City seeks answers in police shootings

The fatal shooting of Larry Jackson Jr. by Austin police Detective Charles Kleinert raised disturbing questions from the moment news of it broke two weeks ago. Those questions, along with growing community concerns about other police shootings in the past two years, left City Manager Marc Ott with little choice …

  • 7:00 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 8, 2013
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Austin police investigate a fatal shooting Monday after a domestic disturbance call. A woman who made three calls to 911 from the home said her boyfriend had hit her.

Police fatally shoot man in South Austin

Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo defended two law enforcement officials involved in a fatal shooting early Monday in South Austin, saying, “I would not have asked any more” of them.A Travis County sheriff’s deputy and an Austin police officer, responding to a domestic disturbance call, opened fire on Roger Tyrone …

  • Updated: 11:08 p.m. Monday, Dec. 28, 2009
Adam Loewy
says Sanders family is disappointed.

Officer involved in shooting suspended 15 days

Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said Wednesday that the fatal police shooting of Nathaniel Sanders II did not constitute excessive force and that the officer’s tactics before the shooting were within departmental rules. But senior police officer Leonardo Quintana will begin serving a 15-day unpaid suspension today for not turning …

  • Updated: 12:03 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 5, 2009
The use of deadly force by Austin officers has been a major concern for Police Chief Art Acevedo since he arrived in July 2007. In April, though, he was representing the department after the killing of one of its own, Jaime Padron, shot while confronting a suspected shoplifter.

Austin police discipline up, complaints down after Acevedo’s five years as chief

Five years after Art Acevedo was selected to reform a troubled Austin Police Department, it has seen a drop in complaints from residents as well as a rise in officer suspensions, an American-Statesman analysis has found. While the number of formal complaints made against police by citizens has declined since …

  • Updated: 11:14 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 4, 2012

Fatal shooting tests Acevedo

This story originally was published May 17, 2009. Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo got the call shortly after 5 a.m. Monday: An officer had fatally shot an African American man and wounded another in an apartment complex parking lot in East Austin. On his way to the scene within minutes, …

  • Updated: 10:54 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2010
Senior police officer Jaime Padron was killed at a North Austin Wal-Mart.

Flirting with trouble: Details of life of man accused of killing police officer begin to emerge

Soon after he started his freshman year at Colorado State University in the spring of 2007, a friendship blossomed between Weston Bickmore and his roommate.Both Bickmore and Brandon Montgomery Daniel were from the Denver suburbs. They both owned motorcycles. They spent hours together lifting weights at the campus gym or …

  • Updated: 9:05 a.m. Monday, April 23, 2012
Austin police officer Jaime Padron was fatally shot early Friday morning in a North Austin Wal-Mart.

After killing of colleague, Austin officers will worry, dissect incident again and again, experts say

Former New York Police Department officer Vincent Henry can recite every detail of fellow officer Phil Cardillo’s death — the call, the address, the details of the fatal shooting, the political fallout — as clearly as if it happened yesterday. “It’s still the subject of discussion among New York cops,” …

  • Updated: 11:04 p.m. Saturday, April 7, 2012

Names of officer, victim in fatal shooting released

The Austin Police Department has announced that Officer Jonathan Whitted was the officer who shot and killed a man in North Austin on Friday morning. He has worked for the department since September 2009, officials said. The victim, John Schaefer, 70, was an instructor for the Austin Rifle Club. Leslie …

  • Updated: 4:35 p.m. Friday, March 1, 2013
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Renata Simmons, along with her husband Chris Simmons, hugs her German Shepherd, Vinny, who survived a gunshot wound fired by a Leander police officer in June outside their home in Liberty Hill. The officer was serving a warrant at the wrong address for the wrong person.

Better police training could prevent dog shootings, pet owners say

Renata Simmons wrapped her arms around Vinny, a German shepherd therapy dog that was shot in the neck in June, and considered herself lucky. Among the dog owners gathered Friday outside the Austin Police Department to protest police shootings of their pets, Simmons was the only one whose dog survived. …

  • 6:05 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 17, 2013
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Initial report to state: Austin police shooting ‘justifiable homicide’

As authorities investigated whether a detective accidentally fired the shot that killed an unarmed man last month, the Austin Police Department filed a report with the state calling the shooting an apparent justifiable homicide. However, Austin police Cmdr. Mark Spangler told the American-Statesman on Tuesday that officials will revise that …

  • 8:44 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2013
  • Comments  (74)

Yogurt shop suspect dies in shooting

Maurice Pierce, who was once jailed in Austin’s infamous 1991 yogurt shop murders and had remained a suspect in the unresolved case, was shot dead Thursday night after taking a police officer’s knife and slashing the officer’s trachea and carotid artery, police said Friday. Police said officer Frank Wilson acted …

  • Updated: 10:07 p.m. Friday, Dec. 24, 2010

Central Texas Digest: Man who died after police chase is identified; East Austin fire displaces 17

AUSTINMorning fire displaces 17An early morning fire Monday in East Austin displaced 17 people and sent one to the hospital. The fire at 2201 E. 51st St. caused significant damage to two duplexes, Fire Department spokesman Isaac Rodriguez said.A portion of East 51st Street was closed for several hours as …

  • Updated: 11:38 p.m. Monday, Sept. 27, 2010

Man charged with capital murder in officer’s shooting death

A man charged with fatally shooting an Austin police officer had talked of robbing a store and told investigators he intentionally shot the officer because he was trying to stop him from fleeing, according to court documents released late Friday.A four-page arrest affidavit for Brandon Montgomery Daniel, 24, provided new …

  • Updated: 12:14 a.m. Saturday, April 7, 2012

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