A Travis County jury was unable to reach a verdict after days of deliberation in the trial of Christopher Taylor, an Austin Police Officer charged with murder after the 2020 on-duty shooting of Michael Ramos. On Wednesday, the judge declared a mistrial.
Taylor was indicted and charged with murder in March 2021 in connection with the death of Ramos, a 42-year-old Hispanic and Black man who was unarmed at the time he was killed. This is one of almost 40 criminal cases brought against law enforcement officials for on-duty incidents since Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza took office in January 2021, according to data gathered from public reports issued by the office’s Civil Rights Unit. Garza ran on a platform of holding police officers accountable for misconduct.
Several of the cases include more than one criminal charge. At least seven cases have been disposed of—either dismissed or reindicted—and roughly half of all of the cases stem from uses of force during the 2020 protests against police brutality.
