Austin's chapter of the NAACP wants Travis County to step up its involvement in officer involved shootings.
The controversial shooting death of 18-year-old Nathaniel Sanders is the latest in the Austin Police Department's history.
On-duty officer Leonardo Quintana shot and killed Sanders on May 11 and wounded Sir Lawrence Smith while on duty investigating a vehicle that police said was possibly involved in criminal activity and could have armed occupants. Sanders was inside the vehicle Quintana encountered.
Quintana, did not face criminal charges. A grand jury did not indict him.
However, Nelson Linder with Austin's chapter of the NAACP said flaws at the District Attorney's level of the investigation could have changed the outcome.
"The DA's office too often is too close in line with the police department. We need more prosecution coming from that office
and they no-bill people in almost every case," Linder said.
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An ongoing fight
News 8’s Karina Kling has more on the NAACP’s push for more county oversight in officer involved shootings.
 
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Wayne Vincent is the president of the Austin Police Association. He said that cases of officer involved shootings already undergo a detailed examination process.
"The grand jury and the DA look at it, the internal mechanisms of
the department looks at it and there's just a number of layers
that looks at it. I don't know if you need more layers," Vincent said.
One of the main issues surrounding the Sander's case is an e-mail the DA's office failed to uncover.
Former internal affairs detective Chris Dunn wrote in an e-mail:
"Let's get Sanders probationary records. Also check for records on others. See if he/they violated curfew and are carrying a gun/using drugs. We can make him/them a causation of the entire event. Guezz I am so smart I scare myself. Thoughts?"
The e-mail was later discovered by an independent investigation.
The detective who wrote the message has since been dismissed. His attorney is filing an appeal.
"Did they not see those e-mails? Did they not acknowledge aggressive use of force policies? Where were they? Do they have actual investigators? That's our concerns, and as a result you're abdicating your responsibility as a government," Linder said. "The county has more authority on these issues and yet they're absent from the equation."
Judge Sam Biscoe said Travis County has very little authority over the power to prosecute, with the exception of funding.
"I think that what we have, though, is the power of moral suasion and a good working relationship. So to the extent we can exercise both of those, exert them, and help achieve a just end, then I think we ought to," Biscoe said.
Both the Commissioners Court and the District Attorney said they're willing to continue the conversation of oversight and accountability.
District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg said she will meet with Linder to discuss concerns about the investigation process at the county level.
