You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

Activists Demand Arrest of Austin, TX Officers Who Left 2 Young Protesters with Head Trauma

HeadlineJun 10, 2020

A warning to our viewers: This next story contains graphic images of police violence. In Austin, Texas, Black Lives Matter activists are demanding the arrest of officers who sent two young people to the hospital with head trauma at recent protests. On May 31, police shot 20-year-old Texas State University student Justin Howell in the head with a lead-pellet bag fired by an officer’s shotgun. After he fell unconscious to the pavement, he was picked up by fellow protesters who tried to rush him past a police line for medical attention. The police then opened fire with another barrage. Powell was hospitalized in critical condition with a fractured skull and brain damage. A day earlier, another Austin officer shot 16-year-old Brad Levi Ayala in the head with a bean bag round as the teen stood passively on a hillside near a line of riot police. Ayala’s family says he is undergoing neurological testing at an Austin hospital and faces a long road to recovery.

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top