About 11PM on Memorial Day, two Austin PD bicycle officers confronted two suspected car thieves. After a short pursuit, officers located the suspects inside a car. As they approached, the driver accelerated the car, striking Officer Rodriguez and rupturing his Achilles tendon (very painful and debilitating).
The driver pinned Officer Wagner up against another vehicle, at which point Wagner, in fear for his life and the life of his partner, drew his service pistol and fired. The passenger, Byron Carter, Jr., was killed, and the driver, a juvenile, was wounded and taken into custody.
From the Statesman:
Relatives on Monday described Carter as a former Connally High School student who was humble, quiet and caring but had fallen on hard times running with the “wrong” crowd.
“He was a real nice guy,” his grandmother, Gloria Clark, said Tuesday morning, as she and other relatives gathered close to the scene of the shooting. “He didn’t start trouble.”
Criminal records show Carter faced a drug-related felony from July, when police say he was caught during a sting attempting to sell crack cocaine. He briefly fled before being captured, according to court records.
Carter was also convicted of four misdemeanors — two criminal trespassing charges and two charges of evading — in the past two years, court records show.
When do the lawyers arrive?
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