Texas prosecutors announced Wednesday they have decided to stop pursuing a murder case against an Austin police officer that ended in a disagreement over a jury verdict last year.
The Travis County District Attorney's Office announced it had decided to close the case after a grand jury declined to indict Officer Christopher Taylor on Tuesday.
In 2021, Officer Taylor was charged with murder after prosecutors said he shot and killed an unarmed man, Michael Ramos, 42, outside his Austin apartment on April 24, 2020.
According to Austin Police, after receiving a 911 call reporting a man with drugs and a gun sitting in a car, Officer Taylor fired three shots from a rifle into Ramos' vehicle while he was moving, shooting him. After the shooting, police determined Ramos was unarmed.
The killing of Ramos, who was Black and Hispanic, sparked protests against police brutality in Austin about a month before the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked global demonstrations against police brutality and systemic racism.
In November, a jury was unable to reach a verdict in the murder case against Officer Taylor, resulting in a mistrial.
Prosecutors presented the case to a second grand jury on Tuesday to consider murder and other charges, the district attorney's office said, but the jury declined to issue an indictment on any of the charges presented, the office said.
“We are surprised and disappointed by this outcome, but we also respect the grand jury's decision and the time taken,” Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza said in a statement. “Our hearts are broken because we know the Ramos family is still grieving.”
Ramos' mother, Brenda Ramos, has filed a lawsuit against Officer Taylor and the City of Austin, seeking damages and holding them accountable for the “senseless murder” of her son. The lawsuit is still pending.
Ramos' attorneys said in a statement Wednesday that she is “appalled and disappointed” by the grand jury's decision. “The grand jury's conclusions run counter to the overwhelming evidence of Officer Taylor's culpability in the senseless shooting death of Mike Ramos. She looks forward to confronting Taylor in federal court and holding him accountable for the unjustifiable killing of her son.”
Officer Taylor's attorneys, Ken Irvin and Doug O'Connell, said in a statement that Garza “misused the grand jury system to create a false justification for dismissing the murder charge against Officer Taylor.”
Irvin and O'Connell said the 2021 indictment against Officer Taylor was still pending after the mistrial and Garza could have proceeded with a trial based on that indictment, but they said Garza presented the case to a second grand jury “with facts intended to prevent an indictment from being issued.”
“And now he is blaming the second grand jury for the reason that the indictment issued by the first grand jury must be dismissed,” Irvin and O'Connell said.
“What happened today does not warrant dismissal of the case,” the lawyers added, accusing Garza of orchestrating the second grand jury proceedings “to avoid another embarrassing trial defeat against law enforcement officers.”
Garza's office did not immediately comment on the charges or the office's decision to present the case to a second grand jury.
Officer Taylor, who holds a paid administrative position with the Austin Police Department, is scheduled to go on trial in September on a separate murder charge, Irvin said.
In 2021, Officer Taylor and another Austin police officer, Carl Kricia, were indicted on murder and manslaughter charges in the July 31, 2019 shooting death of Maurice DeSilva, 46, who was armed with a knife in the hallway of an apartment building.
DeSilva suffers from severe mental illness and was holding a knife to his neck when people inside the building called 911, according to a lawsuit filed by his father. The lawsuit alleges that Officers Taylor and Kricia knew DeSilva was experiencing a mental crisis but responded “as if it were a violent crime scene.”
Officer Taylor's defense team argued that Officer Taylor was trying to defend himself after DeSilva refused to drop the knife and came within three to four feet of the officer.