Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo has fired the internal affairs officer at the center of a controversial email involved in the Nathaniel Sanders shooting investigation.
The email from Chris Dunn reads: "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?"
Dunn sent that email to other internal affairs officers regarding the investigation of Officer Leonardo Quintana. Quintana shot and killed Sanders on May 11 and wounded Sir Lawrence Smith.
In July, a Travis County grand jury decided not to indict Quintana.
After the initial Travis County District Attorney's Office investigation, APD responded to community pressure and conducted its own internal investigation into the incident.
The results of that internal investigation were reviewed by a citizens' panel, which then asked the city to conduct an independent review of APD's internal and criminal investigation. That independent report, released last month, called the Austin Police Department's investigation "biased."
The independent review said that bias worked in Quintana's favor.
Acevedo originally said the report confirmed the competency of APD's criminal investigation, though questions of "bias" in the subsequent internal investigation are legitimate.
"The bottom line is, I don't see how we keep a detective who, as a peace officer, who has shown and demonstrated an attitude that is impartial in a case involving the taking of a human life," Police Chief Art Acevedo said.
Austin Police Association President Wayne Vincent disagreed.
"It appears like we're scape-goating this detective, but there are a whole lot of other issues to address within internal affairs, I imagine. The investigation itself, I contend, was probably not jeopardized at all by this email," he said.
Chief Acevedo is asking Austin City Council to allow changes in internal affairs structure. They include upgrading all detectives to the rank of sergeant and adding a lieutenant.
