Austin police officer Nathan Wagner shot and killed Byron Carter Jr. more than two years ago in an incident that garnered wide community debate over racial profiling and use of force against minorities in East Austin.
Taking the stand Tuesday, the officer and his partner for the first time publicly recounted their recollections of the events, describing the experience as a traumatic confrontation that escalated in seconds. The officers said Carter was a passenger in the car of a teenage friend, who accelerated and drove in their direction.
"I feared for my life," Wagner told jurors.
Carter's family is seeking up to $1.5 million in damages in the civil case filed in October 2011 against Wagner, the Austin Police Department and the city. Jurors will have to decide whether the officer's use of deadly force was reasonable or excessive, violating Carter's constitutional rights.
Months after the deadly incident on March 30, 2011, a panel of citizen volunteers reviewed evidence collected in the police investigation and found that Wagner, who is white, and his partner, Jeffrey Rodriguez, racially profiled the two civilians and recommended that Wagner be fired. Another memorandum provided to the panel by Police Monitor Margo Frasier said Wagner violated department policy by opening fire when he could not see the occupants in the vehicle.
But before testimony began Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel ruled the documents inadmissible as both groups were not investigative bodies and merely provided oversight. The panel of citizens did not have expertise in law enforcement and was limited in the time and resources it had to analyze the case, Yeakel found.
In court Thursday, Adam Loewy, who is representing Carter's family, pointed to discrepancies in the officers' stories, arguing that police followed the men and sneaked up on them, though they had not committed a crime.
"There is going to be a claim in this case that this was self-defense ... but that is a complete lie," Loewy said.
Robert Icenhauer-Ramirez, who is representing Wagner, the Police Department and the city, said the officers were wearing uniforms and acted appropriately based on their training. Carter was sitting in the car with a pile of cash on his lap and did not want police to interfere, the attorney said.
On the stand, Wagner and Rodriguez, each of whom has five years' experience with the department, said they had been on bike patrol that night in an operation targeting suspicious activity. Two other officers were directing them from atop a nearby parking garage, Wagner said, but though they received no orders, they began following Carter and his friend because they appeared to be casing an area notorious for car burglaries.
The officers lost track of Carter and his friend, who had been walking north from Interstate 35 at the bottom of a hill on East Eighth Street, Wagner said. They decided to check cars on the way up when they noticed one of them had its headlights on.
Wagner said he was surprised to find people in the car, which was parallel parked on the street; Rodriguez said he could see them from a distance.
"It was fast," Wagner said of the car coming toward the officers, forcing them to jump out of the way. "I realized that if we didn't stop the car, we were going to get struck or killed."
Wagner fired five shots in 1.4 seconds, killing Carter and wounding his teenage friend, records show.
Officer Shana Howell, who had been working that night from the parking garage, told jurors there was a lack of communication in the operation and that Wagner and Rodriguez never radioed in that they would be pursuing a suspect.
She cried on the witness stand as she recounted arriving to a frenetic scene moments after the shooting. Howell said she did not know someone had been killed and was able to speak only to Rodriguez, who looked disoriented and in pain. "That car tried to hit me,' he said verbatim," Howell testified.
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McClatchy-Tribune News Service
