Family Of Man Killed By Officers In Downtown Austin Disputes Official Police Account

AUSTIN, TX — Family members of a man shot by police in the city's downtown entertainment district over the weekend are disputing the official police account of the killing, and some advocates are calling for the police chief's firing.

Just after the bars closed along 6th Street on Sunday morning, police got a call about a man firing shots into the air. Once on scene, police located a man and briefly gave chase before the man was shot along Trinity Street between 6th and 7th streets, police said in a subsequent press conference.

Family members have since identified the dead man as Landon Nobles, 24. But beyond the facts the man took off running at the sight of police and he is now dead, contrasting accounts by family members and police into what led to the fatal shooting are diametrically opposed in the wake of the death.

"We just want the truth to be known," Frank Nobles, the dead man's cousin, told Fox 7.

“The suspect did turn and fire toward our officers," interim Police Chief Brian Manley told reporters hours after the incident. "Our officers returned fire and the suspect was ultimately shot at that point.”

The man's cousin disputes the account, providing more nuance to the scene.

“He does take off running and he's tripped up by a bicycle, one of the police bikes it just come out of nowhere," he told the news station. "Then the impact, when he hits the bike, a shot is fired. I'm looking dead at him and he has nothing in his hand," the man, who was celebrating his birthday with his now-deceased cousin, said.

The cousin also offered a much more grisly killing than the one police described.

At the press conference, Manley pithily encapsulated the deadly encounter, while suggesting officers at the scene rendered aid before Nobles was taken to the hospital, where he later died: "“The suspect went down after he was shot," Manley said. "Officers went in and began life saving measures and EMS arrived on scene.”

The cousin tells it differently, saying Nobles was riddled with bullets after his deadly encounter with police.

“There's another seven or eight shots that took place after that," he told the news station. "And I saw bullet holes, two in his back.”

Police are mum for now, citing the ongoing nature of the investigation. Given the throngs that descend upon 6th Street each weekend, the corridor has arguably the heaviest arsenal of surveillance cameras (a network of police ones and those belonging to merchants) than anywhere else in the city, as police have suggested in the past. Manley referenced the police camera network, dubbed High Activity Location Observation (HALO) as key in aiding police to locate Nobles in the first place.

In Austin, police aren't equipped with body cams. A lawsuit by the lowest bidder to outfit the force has sued the department and has exacerbated the securing of body cameras as a result.

But police have declined requests by media outlets to release surveillance footage, again citing the ongoing nature of their investigation.

Those who know Nobles point to other intangibles in disputing the police account. The young man had every reason live, his uncle told Fox 7, and enjoyed spending time with his family—including his two young children. The behavior described by police runs counter to the nephew he knew.

“That's not his character, Archie Kelly, the uncle who also serves as a pastor, told the news station. "Landon was a great energetic young man, always laughing, loved to play with the children.”

On his Facebook page, friends and family have been posting messages expressing their sadness and shock at the young man's death. "My heart dropped when I woke up this morning and heard that Landon Nobles had been shot," one wrote. "I had just spoken with you briefly back in April. Can't believe your gone."

Ironically, Nobles last summer posted a snippet on his Facebook page showing him voicing lament of police shootings in general.

Nobles' friends and loved ones have taken to blanking their profile pictures on Facebook in lieu of a blank, blue block to honor him. A funeral service is now scheduled for May 20, with family members asking attendants to dress in church attire rather than donning emblazoned T-shirts specially made to honor his memory.

Meanwhile the two police officers involved in the shooting—a sergeant and corporal with a combined 25 years of experience on the force—have been placed on administrative leave, pending the outcome of the investigation. They have since been identified as Sgt. Richard Egal and Corp. Maxwell Johnson.

The officers' placement on administrative leave is in keeping with police protocol after each officer-involved shooting. Lately, that administrative step is being taken at a disturbing clip. Nobles' death marks the fifth officer-involved shooting just this year. In 2016, there were nine officer-involved shootings.

Just five days before Nobles' death, police shot and killed a man described as distraught by his Spanish-speaking mother who told police he had just argued with his girlfriend. The month before, another black man, 31-year-old Lawrence Burrell Parrish was shot by police during a standoff at his home. Friends of Nobles reference that shooting to point to police inconsistencies in their official accounts.

Parrish's brother has since uploaded a video describing the incident. Police initially said Parrish had pointed and fired at police first, forcing officers to return fire. But days later, Manley corrected the account by saying that Parrish hadn't fired his weapon. In that incident, no video footage of the encounter exists, as patrol cars' dashcams were pointed away from the scene, Manley said in a press conference.

Parrish somehow survived the encounter with police despite being shot nine times by officers, according to his brother. In the official police account, the number of shots fired at Parrish wasn't disclosed. Parrish's brother says on the video that family members haven't been allowed to see their loved one, and updates on his medical condition haven't been provided.

"Typically, you don't survive these types of encounters, so it was a miracle my brother survived this situation," Parrish's brother said. "He's being wrongfully housed in prison right now like a prisoner for no apparent reason. We haven't been able to see him, and we don't know his medical condition."

Other recent officer-involved shootings in Austin include:

• In October, 2016, Micah Jester, 26, was fatally shot by police after getting a call from her husband that she was in the throes of mental distress. Police said the woman repeatedly asked police to kill her while brandishing a weapon later determined to have been a BB gun. Police said no dashcam video of the incident was available and there were no witnesses other than police.
• In June 2016, a teenager said to be armed with both a gun and machete was shot by police in South Austin. Ray Barbosa Ojeda, 19, was said to have called police himself in alerting his presence along the 1000 block of Turtle Creek Boulevard before being shot by James Harvel, then assigned to the Special Operations unit. Police later modified their official statement to say that Ojeda was not armed with a gun at the time of his being shot, attributing the darkness during the 4 a.m. encounter for the earlier confusion.
• In another alleged "suicide by cop" incident in April 2016, Tyler Hunkin, 29, was fatally shot by Matthew Paredes, a four-year veteran of the police in South Austin. The APD said Hunkin was wielding not one but two knives before being shot.
• In February 2016, a black teenager was shot by police during what was believed to be a state of mental distress as the youth ran along a neighborhood without any clothes on. David Joseph, 17, died after Geoffrey Freeman said he failed to comply with his commands to stop. Freeman was subsequently fired from the force and the city agreed to a $3.25 million settlement with the dead teenager's family—the biggest such payout in the city's history.

For a report on police-related shootings from 2005-15, click here.

A group calling itself "Justice For Us All" has since started a petition on Change.org calling or Manley's resignation in light of the most recent shootings and subsequent official police accounts detailing them.

"For some reason, when there are violent incidents, persons of color are targeted with deadly force," the petition's author writes on Change.org. "No tasers are used, the officers always pull their guns and shoot the suspect multiple times. I am requesting that the City of Austin ask Brian Manley to resign, this is not the first time that he has been untruthful when it comes to officer involved shootings."

The petition has gathered more than 200 signatures toward a goal of 500. Once enough signatures are gathered, plans call to deliver the petition to Mayor Steve Adler and other officials.

>>> Photo of Landon Nobles via Facebook