Nine officers on leave after downtown shooting

AUSTIN, Texas - The shooting that killed a man Friday morning was the 8th officer involved shooting this year for APD.

“This will take a long time for investigators to work through,” said Ken Casaday, president of the Austin Police Association.

According to APD, eight officers fired at the man killing him. Casaday believes it was justified.

“If you point a gun at a police officer, you're going to get shot 10 out of 10 times,” said Casaday.

But now, nine more officers are on admin leave.  There are 23 police officers total on leave for various reasons, something Casaday believes is only affecting the department's ability to protect and serve.

“Three of the officers who were working Thursday night that were involved in this were working overtime,” said Casaday.

He says, with a police force which is already 300 to 400 officers short, it puts more strain on officers, while dealing with sometimes dangerous 6th Street confrontations,” said Casaday.

“We have to stop the celebration of how much money we make in tax dollars through the sale of alcohol in this city. It just leads to huge problems that gets left in police officers' laps,” said Casaday.

“Most of our officer involved shootings if I had to guess are dealing with people with mental illness,” said Casaday.

“We hear about the need for more officers in the city of Austin. But I think if you listen to officers, they would admit they are asked to do things that aren't really within their job,” said Chris Harris, with Grassroots Leadership.

He says hiring more police is not the answer.

“Should police be the answer for homelessness, issues with youth in our schools, should they be the answer to people with mental health issues and crises? I think the answer to the questions is no,” said Harris.

Casaday says when officers are placed on leave, it lasts between 4 to 8 weeks.