APD investigates Sanders review

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Austin police are investigating their own internal investigation into the Nathaniel Sanders shooting. APD internal affairs officers are now the subject of another internal investigation related to the shooting death of teenager Nathaniel Sanders. He was shot back in May as officers approached a suspect vehicle.

After an independent review found the APD internal affairs investigation to be biased, Austin police have now created a "special inquiry team" made up of four high-ranking officers: three lieutenants and a commander.

"The most important thing right now is that the community have confidence in the police department's final determination as to whether Officer Quintana used appropriate deadly force or not," said Assistant Chief David Carter.

The team will go back over the shooting and the internal investigation to determine if Officer Leonardo Quintana acted appropriately when he shot and killed Sanders. They also looking into the claims of bias toward the officers. The team will report directly to Assistant Chief Carter.

"I want this to be a transparent process," said Carter. "We know without that transparency, the community trust as much."

The attorney representing the Sanders family questioned the integrity of the second internal review.

"This gets to an institutional problem at APD and this raises enormous questions about whether the public can trust whatever APD is going to try to say happened that morning," said Adam Loewy.

By law any disciplinary action taken against Officer Quintana must happen before November 7th.