Austin City Council agrees to $2.25M settlement in fatal police shooting of Jason Roque
The city of Austin will pay $2.25 million to the parents of a suicidal man killed by police in 2017, opting to end the lawsuit after four years and not leave it to a jury to decide at trial whether the shooting was justified.
The settlement with Albina and Vicente Roque — the surviving parents of Jason Roque — was approved Thursday by the City Council in a near unanimous vote. Council Member Mackenzie Kelly voted against it, saying later she did so because the officer who shot Roque, James Harvel, was cleared of wrongdoing in separate criminal and internal investigations.
After the Roque family filed suit, a federal District Court in March 2020 granted Harvel's request for immunity for the first shot he fired at Roque, but not for the second, which missed, or for a third shot, which came as Roque lay wounded on the ground. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that decision in April, a significant moment in the case that urged Austin's leaders to go ahead and reach a settlement prior to trial.
It is the second-largest monetary amount paid to settle a use of force case in city history, behind only the $3.25 million to the family of David Joseph, a naked and unarmed teenager who was shot while running down a street toward an officer in 2015.
Read more: https://www.statesman.com/story/news/2021/09/03/austin-settles-jason-roque-2017-police-shooting-case/5688378001/
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elect local, county and state political and law-enforcement leaders. As far as I'm
concerned, $2.25 million isn't enough. RIP Jason. 