Austin police officers who were indicted over actions during George Floyd protests sue the city

[TexasTowelie]

by Sneha Dey, Texas Tribune


Austin police officers facing indictments over their use of force during racial justice protests two years ago are suing the city, saying they didn’t receive training on how to use the “less than lethal” rounds employed during the demonstrations and that city officials knew the rounds were defective.

When protesters flooded the streets of Austin in May 2020 after the murder of George Floyd, Austin police officers used 12-gauge shotguns to fire beanbag rounds — small cloth baggies filled with #9 lead — on demonstrators. Several people were seriously wounded and sued the city, resulting in over $13 million in settlements.

In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, five officers — Joshua Jackson, Rolan Rast, Todd Gilbertson, Derrick Lehman and Alexander Lomovstev — said they received “limited or no training” about the beanbag rounds. Police officers across units were asked to respond to the protests, including patrolmen and detectives with little training on riot response, the lawsuit says.

The suit also says the city knew the rounds were defective and dangerous and “did nothing to remove them from service.” A spokesperson for Justin Berry, one of the officers who was indicted and who ran for Texas House District 19 earlier this year, has said the beanbags were “old,” “hardened” and “had been sitting in boxes for too long.”

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2022/06/01/austin-police-indictments-protests/