A forward-thinking district attorney in Texas has decided not to pursue charges against Austin police officers involved in the fatal shooting of a gunman who was responsible for killing three individuals and injuring 13 more in what was believed to be a terror-related incident. Despite earlier speculation about the potential for a grand jury review, the officers will not face prosecution.
Travis County District Attorney José Garza issued a statement following comments from Governor Greg Abbott, who indicated that he would ultimately have the authority to decide on any legal actions against the officers. Garza firmly stated, “These officers acted as heroes, and it should be abundantly clear that my office has no intention of pressing charges. Any claims suggesting otherwise are patently false and are being circulated for political motives.”
Garza’s office faced scrutiny after reports emerged that the officers might be subject to a grand jury review due to a policy implemented in 2021. This policy mandates that all incidents involving officer shootings and significant use of force undergo grand jury assessment.
Doug O’Connell, from the law firm O’Connell West, which has been enlisted by the Austin Police Association to represent the officers, noted that this review process is a result of a policy instituted by Garza. According to O’Connell, the policy was developed under the influence of the Wren Collective, a nonprofit focused on progressive criminal justice reform. The organization, primarily made up of former public defenders, aims to transform the American legal system and supports liberal district attorneys.
Doug O’Connell, whose law firm O’Connell West has been tapped to represent the officers at the behest of the Austin Police Association, said the review is part of a policy instituted by Garza.
Garza, O’Connell said, demanded the policy at the direction of the Wren Collective, a progressive criminal justice reform nonprofit that backs liberal DAs and is mainly composed of former public defenders seeking to overhaul the American justice system.
“It’s my belief that the Wren Collective has directed the district attorney to review officer-involved cases this way,” O’Connell told Fox News Digital. “It seems they’re very anti-law enforcement officers.”
The Austin police officers shot and killed Ndiaga Diagne, a 53-year-old naturalized US citizen born in Senegal, early Sunday after he opened fire at a bar, Buford’s Backyard Beer Garden, killing Savitha Shan, 21, Jorge Pederson, 30, and 19-year-old Ryder Harrington.
Fox News Digital has reached out to Garza’s office.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Wren Collective founder Jessica Brand thanked the responding officers for their actions, which she credited for saving more lives.
“Three people died in a mass shooting last week, more people were harmed, families are grieving and the entire city is in mourning,” she said. “The officers did heroic work and stopped what could have been an even bigger tragedy. As an Austin resident, I thank them, and also those people providing support for the many victims and their loved ones now.”
O’Connell said Garza ran on a campaign of targeting police officers in an anti-police climate.
The DA instituted the review in 2021 amid calls for greater law enforcement accountability after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which also sparked nationwide calls to defund police agencies.
In addition to worrying about violence directed at them, officers now have to worry about potential legal action, O’Connell said.
“Every time an officer is dispatched to a violent criminal call, they’ve got to be thinking: ‘I could be killed, or, depending on how this goes, I could be indicted,’” O’Connell said.
In a post on X, Abbott praised the officers while noting that Garza’s office isn’t the end-all should the officers involved be charged or convicted in court.
“These police officers are heroes who saved lives. Whatever the DA does, I will have the final say in the fate of these police officers,” he wrote on X.
Fox News Digital has reached out to Abbott’s office for clarity on his remarks.
Texas state Rep. Mitch Little, a Republican who formerly served as the impeachment attorney for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, told Fox News Digital there was no legal justification to have a grand jury for every single officer-involved shooting.
“The only explanation for that is a leftist ideological bent on the part of the district attorney’s office,” he said.
Much of the criticism of the mandatory review stems from its lack of transparency, O’Connell said.
“Nothing about it is fair or balanced. The district attorney holds all the power when it comes to grand juries,” he said, noting that defense lawyers aren’t allowed to be present or present evidence.
“We know that grand juries have been manipulated because we’ve had to defend officers who have been indicted,” he added.
Michael Bullock, the president of the Austin Police Association, the union that represents rank-and-file officers, said he believed there was already “sufficient information” that publicly shows a grand jury isn’t necessary.
“There’s no need to subject these officers to that, especially since it’s taking the DA over a year in almost every case to present these to the grand jury,” he wrote Tuesday on X. “That’s way too long and added stress for officers who have already been through a lot.”
