Austin City Council settles three lawsuits relating to 2020 protest injuries

KVUE
Author: Sam Searles
Published: 5:45 PM CST February 23, 2023

AUSTIN, Texas — Austin City Council voted to settle three lawsuits relating to residents in Austin that were injured during the 2020 protests by Austin Police Department (APD) officers.

The council voted on Feb. 23 to pay a total of $1.5 million to three different protesters that were injured by APD officers in May 2020. The three protestors were in Downtown Austin in May 2020 during the city-wide protests following the death of George Floyd. 

APD officers had used less-lethal rounds during the protests, referred to as "beanbag rounds," and this resulted in multiple protestors filing lawsuits against the City and APD for injuries that the rounds caused. 

This new round of settlements comes after seven settlements were reached by the City with a variety of residents that were injured during the protests. These previous lawsuits totaled $14.475 million paid to residents from APD's usage of excessive force in May 2020.

The three settlements approved on Thursday were:

• $375,000 to Jason Gallagher, a Travis County resident that stated he was pepper sprayed by two APD officers, hit in the back by a third officer's baton and pushed.
•  $450,000 to Steven Arawn, a Travis County resident that said APD shot his wrist and hand with a beanbag round while providing help to a fallen protestor. This left him seriously injured. 
• $675,000 to Nicole Underwood, a Hays County resident that stated APD shot her in her torso with one of the beanbag rounds.

In the summer months of 2022, APD conducted an internal review as a way to assess department strengths and find the spots to improve upon following the protests. The report found 17 "critical areas of analysis," which included de-escalation techniques and training, improvements to the mobile field of force, and training for an integrated response across multiple APD units. 

APD has continued to review and analyze the protests and the response since the summer of 2020.