CITY HALL

Teens among those accused of most serious crimes during first days of Austin protests

Ryan Autullo / and Katie Hall /
A liquor store at East Sixth Street and Interstate 35 is looted during a protest early Monday morning.

Among the dozens of people authorities arrested in Austin during last weekend’s demonstrations were 12 teens accused of committing some of the most serious crimes, including breaking into stores and stealing merchandise.

Court records obtained by the American-Statesman shed light on the unlawful offshoots of the city’s first days of protests, in which thousands flooded the streets to denounce aggressive police tactics and the in-custody deaths of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Michael Ramos in Austin.

In response to a request from the Statesman for a list of suspects arrested between May 29 and June 1 in connection with the protests, the Austin Police Department furnished a spreadsheet with 53 names. A review of affidavits related to those arrests showed that at least 10 of them did not appear to have a link to the protests. The Statesman found five more arrests connected to the protests that were not included in the Austin police response.

Police said the most serious offenses, including several burglaries of businesses, were perpetrated by people as young as 17. Unlike many other states, Texas recognizes 17-year-olds as adults when they are suspected of a criminal offense.

About 2 a.m. Monday, police stationed downtown interrupted an attempted burglary after spotting a man trying to open an ATM with a crowbar, court records show. A foot chase followed and led to the arrests of four men between the ages of 18 and 22. They’re charged with felony theft and engaging in organized criminal activity.

About an hour earlier, police arrested three young men after responding to a burglary at an EZ Pawn Shop on Seventh Street. Witnesses reported seeing about 50 people inside the store, police said.

Two teen sisters were arrested Sunday after police say they broke into a Foot Locker store in North Austin and took off with six pairs of shoes valued at nearly $900. Police also arrested a man and a woman accused of taking track jackets and pants among 35 items stolen.

A 19-year-old man is accused of striking a police horse with a protest sign. Another 19-year-old was arrested after police responded to a break-in at a Walmart on Norwood Park Boulevard in North Austin. And a 17-year-old was arrested at a Sam’s Club in the Southpark Meadows shopping center after a caller reported nearly 20 people had broken into the store. The teen ripped a laptop out of the security system and ran around the store with it, an arrest affidavit says.

Local defense attorney Victor Arana, who was appointed to represent a 17-year-old suspect facing a felony burglary charge, said the young age of some of the people arrested during the protests is worrisome.

“How does someone bounce back from that?” Arana said. “Would you expect someone who loots at 18 to turn out to be a good lawyer or a good doctor? Those folks are just starting out and should be having fun driving around. We’re all frustrated with the economy, but to go down the wrong road is just such a shame.”

He suggested such actions might have been fueled by the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Young Austinites have grown up during a historic period of racial unrest in the city, punctuated by the fatal police shooting of unarmed teenager David Joseph in 2016; the 2015 violent arrest of teacher Breaion King; and most recently, the fatal police shooting of Michael Ramos in April. Nationally, they have lived through other cases such as the in-custody death of Eric Garner, who, moments before he died, told New York officers, “I can’t breathe.”

“That’s the story of their lives,” local justice activist Annette Price said.

Price, of Grassroots Leadership, added: “To arrest teens and start the prison pipeline is wrong. The rest of their lives are going to be impacted by a civil uprising.”

Ten of the 12 adult teenagers who were arrested during the protests have been released from jail, records show.

Much of the mayhem occurred while officers stifled crowds with tear gas and fired less lethal ammunition, resulting in many hospitalizations and serious injuries to unintended targets.

Travis County District Attorney Margaret Moore said Friday that her office is coordinating with the county attorney’s office and law enforcement agencies to review a voluminous amount of footage from police body cameras recorded during the protests. Moore also said federal authorities have expressed interest in some of the cases and could end up taking over them.

“What we’re looking for is whether someone caught the attention of police and was found with a small amount of drugs or someone engaged in more dangerous conduct,” Moore said. “A lot is going on in a very chaotic situation, and we want to make judicious decisions on how to address each individual case by assessing the overall conduct.”

Others who went to jail include a 25-year-old man accused of pouring lighter fluid into a bottle to make a Molotov cocktail, a 28-year-old man accused of hitting a counterprotester with a bottle and two women in their 20s accused of vandalizing Austin police headquarters with spray paint. Several businesses were burglarized amid the protests.

All but a handful of the people who were arrested have a registered home address in or near Austin, bucking speculation that many of the acts of violence were perpetrated by outside agitators.

The criminal cases now are headed to court, where Travis County prosecutors get to decide which offenses they believe are provable. It’s unlikely any of the cases will reach a quick resolution because attorneys first must work through a backlog that has swelled in the three months since the pandemic brought the criminal legal system to a crawl. There have been no trials since early March.

Local defense attorney Paul Quinzi suggested some of the cases against the protesters are flawed and should not move forward. Quinzi helped staff the Austin Lawyers Guild’s hotline that weekend and said the group assisted about half of the protesters who were arrested.

"In several of the cases, it appears that the person was not doing what they were arrested for," Quinzi said.

Maya Van Os, 23, was arrested Saturday afternoon and accused of obstructing a highway. She was on the Interstate 35 service road with hundreds of others and not on the interstate itself, video of her arrest shows.

Video shows her swatting at an officer's raised gun with her sign. An officer moves to grab her, then a protester moves to stop the officer from grabbing her. She was “bruised from my forehead to my knees” in the resulting scuffle, she said.

She spent a combined 12 hours in police custody and in jail. Once she got out, a doctor told her she had a concussion, she said.

"I don’t think I’ve ever experienced anything so terrifying," she said.

Van Os was released from jail about 1 a.m. Sunday and was told her charge had been dropped, she said. Travis County court records do not have an affidavit on file for her charge.

The door of a Target in North Austin was broken Sunday as some people forcibly entered the store amid protests decrying the death of George Floyd and police brutality.