Officer-involved shooting analyzed

AUSTIN (KXAN) - An independent review of the Nathaniel Sanders police-involved shooting is complete.

Parts of the report by KeyPoint Government Solutions were made public today. The 133-page document focused on Officer Leonardo Quintana's shooting of Nathaniel Sanders in May 2009 and the investigations that followed.

The heavily-redacted report said parts of the Austin Police Department investigation were biased towards officers and there were "substantive deficiencies." They also cited "significant deficiencies in the quality of documentation relating to training of APD officers." Despite the bias the study found, they felt the "facts developed by the IA investigation combined with those developed by the homicide investigation to be such that our independent investigation did not need to resort to a first-party reinvestigation of those facts."

The report specifically mentioned the lack of Mobile Video/Audio Recording equipment utilization during the traffic stop. Officer Siddiqui, an officer at the scene of the shooting, had a MVR in his car and the car was positioned "in a way that the MVR would have captured the entire event."

The report also mentions that "Officer Quintana was aware that he was going to contact two passengers in a vehicle and that both of the subjects were sleeping. The contact occurred at 5 a.m., the ambient lighting was poor, the officers were wearing dark-colored uniforms." The report said this was one of the mistakes that the officers made since APD policy requires officers to identify themselves when initiating a duty-related contact with a person, unless their identity is obvious. In this case, the lighting was too poor for the subjects to properly identify them as police officers.

When Quintana tried to wake Sanders in the back seat of the car in East Austin, he saw a handgun in his waistband. Quintana claims a brief struggle for the gun ensued. Quintana drew his gun and fired through the rear car window at Sanders. Quintana said he discharged his weapon because he saw Sanders had a gun. Quintana also shot Smith, a passenger in the car also, but he was not killed.

"If it is true that the internal affairs investigation is biased, then that raises some very troubling questions about whether the public can trust APD to investigate officer-involved shootings," said Adam Loewy, the attorney representing the Sanders family in a civil lawsuit.

The Citizen's Review Panel and the Austin Police Monitor will make their recommendations to Chief Art Acevedo, who must render his decision in by November 7.

"The determination of whether or not a particular use of force was justified can only be made after a thorough and complete investigation that is designed to promote fairness, a sense of justice and administrative accountability," mentions the report. "This officer-involved shooting is undergoing such a process."

The Travis County Grand Jury previously declined to indict Quintana. The report also quantifies its analysis.

"Certainly there will be some who will question this level of scrutiny for an incident that occurred under field conditions, in the middle of the night. Indeed, discretionary decision-making is an inherent part of police work. There is simply no reasonable alternative to granting significant discretionary abilities to police officers."