 "Photo: Daniel Pabon")
A group of civil rights activists criticized the city's Public Safety Task Force on Monday in response to this weekend's fatal shooting of 25-year-old Kevin Brown by an Austin police officer in East Austin.
Nelson Linder, president of the Austin chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said Sgt. Michael Olsen had no business being on duty in East Austin because of his involvement in previous incidents with African-Americans. Olsen was suspended in 2002 for excessive force after an incident on Sixth Street. He allegedly slammed a bystander's head against the hood of a police car, causing him fall to the ground and briefly lose consciousness. That incident led to a lawsuit, which the city settled for $31,000.
The latest shooting of a minority by police comes just as the U.S. Department of Justice prepares to investigate the Austin Police Department's use of force on minorities.
Details on the Brown shooting remain undisclosed for fear of jeopardizing the investigation, which is being treated as a homicide, said David Carter, an assistant chief in the Austin Police Department.
"If we were to give all the details now, what happens is that we could affect peoples' recollection - the people we have not interviewed yet and the folks that we're still trying to locate to come forward and give us what they saw," Carter said.
Investigators have identified and interviewed a large number of witnesses but are waiting for more to come forward, Carter said.
Carter said the altercation between officers and Brown at Chester's, a nightclub in East Austin, occurred after someone near the area notified officers that Brown may have been carrying a weapon. Brown fled the scene to a nearby apartment complex, where Olsen fired upon him, killing Brown at the scene. A weapon was found at the scene, though it remains unknown whether Brown had easy access to it.
Richard Franklin, president of Black Austin Democrats, said this latest shooting of a minority in East Austin may be a symptom of a much larger problem.
"What we haven't done is look at the underlying problem as to why we continue to come back here every six months, a year, 18 months as to why there is a black man being shot, a brown man being shot and realizing that there is a group of underlying people, under-served, under-employed, that are not being addressed," Franklin said.
He also said he believes that the city "lacks humanity."
"What we need to look at is the root cause of the problem we have in this city, and I believe that it is a lack of heart and a lack of leadership to say enough is enough," Franklin said.
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