City Will Soon Pay the Price for Shooting of 15-Year-Old Girl

A lead-pellet round, like the one a 15-year-old was injured by (Photo by John Anderson)

Per a recent audit, Austin police misconduct lawsuits have cost the city more than $73 million over the past 10 years. Next week, it seems Council will agree to another injury-related payment.

Among the dozens of items Council will consider October 19 is a settlement in the lawsuit filed by Shivon Beltran, who alleges that an Austin police officer shot and injured her 15-year-old daughter with a lead-pellet round while arresting the girl's brother. According to the suit, filed in 2022, her daughter's wound became infected and required several hospital trips, and the officer who shot the girl was not disciplined.

Just two months ago, Interim Austin Police Chief Robin Henderson ordered officers to stop using "less lethal shotguns" as a result of this very shooting. A July memo from District Attorney José Garza to then-police chief Joseph Chacon informed the Austin Police Dept. of likely criminal conduct on the officer's part, the Statesman reported. Though prosecutors did not present the case to a grand jury, Garza wrote that if they had, officers could have been indicted for assault, official oppression, or deadly conduct.

Garza wrote in the memo that prosecutors chose not to take the case to a grand jury partly because it didn't result in serious injury or death, which is their usual threshold, and so the D.A.'s Office could instead work with APD on its "concerning pattern" of using what are often called "less lethal" munitions.

The suit describes officers coming to Beltran's home to execute an arrest warrant in 2021. When they ordered the occupants to come out, the mother and son did. Once the boy was handcuffed, APD told the teen girl to exit, walking backward. The suit says she did as instructed before turning around so she wouldn't fall. "She was an obviously unarmed 15-year-old girl," the suit says. "Despite this, an APD officer shot her with a kinetic projectile from his shotgun. ... Rather than help her as she lay wounded, upon information and belief, the shooter and other APD officers yelled at her to crawl back to them."

The lead-pellet round injured her thigh, the suit says. The family seeks monetary damages for medical expenses, pain and mental anguish, and disfigurement.

The agenda item does not include an amount for the Beltran payout, but each settlement over police misconduct in the last decade has cost the city anywhere from a few thousand to a few million dollars. The total $73 million price tag from 2013 to 2022 accounted for settlements and the cost of defending suits, which include city resources and fees paid to outside legal consultants, according to the Kroll Associates Inc. audit Council ordered.