Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo Wednesday announced the officer who shot and killed Nathaniel Sanders in Central East Austin in May will be suspended. The announcement comes on the heels of a discipline hearing, which began Wednesday morning.
Officer Leonardo Quintana will be suspended for 15 days for violating departmental policy and not turning on his dashboard camera. One of the two other officers who responded to the scene, Officer Mohammad Siddiqui, was also suspended for three days for not activating his car's dashboard camera.
"That failure to not have that mobile vehicle recording device on created a fire storm of controversy that not for that failure would've existed, and that was in my estimation a serious policy violation," Acevedo said.
Dashboard camera video from a third officer's patrol car shows Quintana firing his gun multiple times into the back of a parked car. Sanders, 18, who was in the car, was hit and killed.
A grand jury cleared Officer Leonardo Quintana of any criminal charges.
During an afternoon news conference, Chief Acevedo said a thorough analysis of the facts led him to conclude that the use of force against Sanders was reasonable.
"I think it's important for people to understand that the use of force -- to me the most important piece of this incident -- is whether or not Officer Quintana was justified in shooting, and I will say that anybody that looks at the totality of the facts (that) would say that he was not entitled to defend himself, I would say they're not being honest with themselves, and, quite frankly, I don't think they're being reasonable," Acevedo said.
Quintana was also exonerated of charges that he failed to identify himself as a police officer. Acevedo said Quintana was wearing a distinct uniform with a badge and all of the required patches and that a reasonable person would have recognized him as an officer.
As a result of the Sanders shooting, new policies went into effect Wednesday regarding the use of dashboard cameras. Officers must now use them more often. Also, if they are found to intentionally not turn on their cameras in serious situations like what happened in the Sanders case, they will receive an indefinite suspension.
Last week, KVUE News reported that police were conducting their own investigation into the internal affairs officers who handled the initial investigation. That comes in response to an independent review that found APD's internal affairs report showed bias toward the officers involved.
Acevedo had until November 7 to make his decision. Quintana has 10 days to appeal his suspension.
