Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza released a statement after rumors began circulating on social media that he was going to force the three Austin police officers who took down the 6th mass street shooter to go before a grand jury.
In a post on X by Austin Police Association president Michael Bullock, he said, “It’s still early on in the internal investigation so it hasn’t even been referred to the district attorney yet as all officer involved shootings are. However, the DA seems to still intend to put this before a grand jury where anything can happen as the DA controls that process and doesn’t allow APD involvement.”
That prompted Texas Governor Greg Abbott to weigh in as well, calling the officers heroes. Others like, Congressman Chip Roy and Senator John Cornyn slammed the idea of Garza presenting the case to a grand jury.
Attorney Doug O’Connell said he’s prepared to represent the officers if Garza does actually present the case, saying the review is part of a policy instituted by Garza.
Garza, O’Connell said, demanded the policy at the direction of the Wren Collective, a progressive criminal justice reform nonprofit that backs liberal DAs and is mainly composed of former public defenders seeking to overhaul the American justice system.
“It’s my belief that the Wren Collective has directed the district attorney to review officer-involved cases this way,” O’Connell told Fox News Digital. “It seems they’re very anti-law enforcement officers.”
But in the statement from Garza, he also called the officers “heroes.”
“It should go without saying that my office is not seeking any charges, and would not seek any charges,” Garza said. “The accounts to the contrary are false, intentionally false, and are being peddled for obvious political purposes.”
The Austin police officers shot and killed Ndiaga Diagne, a 53-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen born in Senegal, early Sunday after he opened fire at Buford’s Backyard Beer Garden, killing Savitha Shan, 21, Jorge Pederson, 30, and 19-year-old Ryder Harrington.
