 "Photo: Kari Rosenfeld/The Daily Texan")
With a solemn demeanor, Austin Police Department Chief Art Acevedo announced Thursday the indefinite suspension of Detective Christopher Dunn, the lead internal affairs investigator of the Nathaniel Sanders II shooting by Officer Leonardo Quintana.
An independent review by KeyPoint Government Solutions found APD’s internal affairs investigation to be biased. Their ruling was partially based on e-mails sent by Dunn on May 13, which attempted to justify the shooting.
“Integrity is the cornerstone of the law enforcement profession and when your integrity is in a position of trust — police are in a position of trust. Internal Affairs is in a position of greater trust — when you violate that oath of an officer, you can become damaged goods,” Acevedo said.
The investigation was spawned after it became known that Quintana did not activate his on-dash camera and had shot 18-year-old Sanders in the back of the head.
According to the report, the e-mail Dunn sent on May 13 to Detective Christian Harkin advised the retrieval of Sanders’ probation records to find any infringement of Sanders’ probationary statues that night.
“We can make him/them a causation of the entire event,” Dunn said in the e-mail. “Guezz I am so smart I scare myself.”
KeyPoint‘s report said Dunn sought to manufacture a rationale for the shootings and that his “conduct [was] clearly designed to exonerate the officers’ actions at the expense of the suspects.”
Wayne Vincent, Austin Police Association president, said in some situations officers may simply forget to turn on their cameras, and even though this is not an excuse, it is a reason explaining Quintana’s actions. He said Dunn should have only been suspended for a few days for showing bias in his investigation.
“We are very shocked that [Dunn] got that kind of punishment, and we feel it’s extremely severe,” Vincent said. “We can understand some punishment for the e-mail Detective Dunn sent, but to fire him is, in our view, more of a punishment — it’s making him a scapegoat for all the criticism Internal Affairs has had.”
According to the KeyPoint report, Quintana stopped a Mercedes station-wagon on the morning of May 11 that had been linked to a series of robberies and shootings over the previous two days. After detaining the driver of the vehicle, Quintana, with the help of Officers Mohammad Siddiqui and John Alexander Hitzelberg, attempted to wake Sanders, who was asleep in the back seat of the vehicle.
Quintana said in a statement that he found a gun in Sanders’ waistband, and as soon as he awoke, Sanders began to remove it. Three witness testimonies, however, claim Sanders raised his hands immediately after being awoken.
Quintana retreated from the vehicle and fired three rounds, the third of which struck Sanders in the back of the head, killing him.
Hitzelberg pulled Sanders’ body out of the car and discovered a handgun on the seat where Sanders had been sitting. DNA swabs of the gun were consistent with Sanders’ story and not with those of the other witnesses.
“The public cannot trust the results of [the internal] investigation,” said Adam Loewy, attorney representing the Sanders family. “[Dunn’s termination] reaffirms our position that [APD is] doing whatever it takes to protect officer Quintana.”
KeyPoint’s report said Internal Affairs investigators asked slanted questions, ignored negative character evidence about Quintana, focused on negative character allegations about suspects, did not adequately explore Quintana’s use of force and did not recognize the inconsistencies between Quintana’s statements and those of eyewitnesses.
Acevedo said the internal affairs unit will be restructured by switching all current detectives to sergeant, assigning a second lieutenant and assigning a new commander.
“We cannot, and I hope the public understands, [the new command] will not paint that entire unit with a wide brush, because the actions of one person should not call into question the integrity of the entire unit,” Acevedo said. “The commander and all the other employees in there are dedicated employees that seek out the truth everyday.”
The three-day suspension of Siddiqui, the 15-day suspension of Quintana and the indefinite suspension of Dunn have raised questions for some about Acevedo’s judgement.
“[Acevedo] can change the department all night, but the real issue is, when are you going to hold your officer accountable?” said Nelson Linder, Austin NAACP president. “He should have fired Quintana for excessive force based on the independent KeyPoint investigation and fired Dunn as well. They both should have been terminated.”
