Travis County DA Delays Action On Officer-Involved Shootings

AUSTIN, TX — Travis County District Attorney Margaret Moore on Wednesday announced a delay in empaneling grand juries to probe the recent deaths of two men during police confrontations, handing off the task to her successor in January.

Moore lost a runoff election in her bid to retain the district attorney's role to José Garza during a July 14 election. She had previously announced plans to present both cases to a special grand jury that was to be empaneled in August. The plans stemmed from the deaths of Javier Ambler in Williamson County and Michael Ramos in South Austin. The former died last year while in custody by WilCo deputies as cameras from the now-canceled "Live PD" show rolled, while the latter was fatally shot after a brief confrontation with Austin police in South Austin on April 24 even though he was unarmed at the time.

“When I created the Civil Rights Unit in this office, one of my main goals was to develop community confidence in the thoroughness and fairness of the process by which we handle officer-involved use-of-force cases," Moore wrote in a prepared statement. "The voters of Travis County have spoken. By overwhelmingly supporting a candidate for district attorney who ran on a platform of changing how officer involved shooting cases are prosecuted, I believe the community has clearly stated it would like to see the new administration oversee the prosecution of these cases from beginning to end."

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Despite the hand off to her successor, Moore said she conveyed the grand jury delay to families of the deceased men: "We are mindful of the possible pain and discomfort to the families of Mr. Ambler and Mr. Ramos by delaying the presentation to a grand jury. We have reached out to the families through their representatives to inform them of this decision and explained our reasons for doing so. We have taken into careful consideration all factors, including the impact this decision would have on the families, and believe that it is the responsible thing to do out of deference to and respect for what can only be viewed as the community’s mandate in the recent election specifically, in relation to how officer-involved shooting cases are handled.”

She assured the cases were prepped for grand jury study ahead of her departure: “These cases will be ready to present to the grand jury as soon as the newly elected district attorney takes office.”

The backdrop of civil unrest as demonstrators decry police abuse loomed large in the race for Travis County District Attorney. Political upstart Garza, head of the nonprofit advocacy group Workers Defense Project, emerged amid the unrest with a message of law enforcement accountability and police reform to distinguish himself from Moore. He will now face a Republican challenger for the DA's seat in November.

Weeks before the election, Patch made a formal request for information to discern how many times Moore's office had cleared cops involved in fatal shootings since taking office in 2016. After a protracted delay, the DA's office reported Moore had opted not to empanel grand juries after police shootings a total of 25 times. That record came into greater focus amid civil unrest, heightened further in the wake of the aforementioned men's deaths at the hands of police.