Judge Denies Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss in Mike Ramos Case 

On April 24, 2020, Austin Police Department (APD) Officer Christopher Taylor fatally shot Mike Ramos, an unarmed, 24-year-old man. His mother, Brenda Ramos, is suing Officer Taylor and the City of Austin for violating her son’s 4th Amendment rights. The defendants both filed Motions to Dismiss the case, alleging that Taylor had qualified immunity as he feared for his life when he shot Mike Ramos. 

Officer Taylor was involved in a previous shooting in 2019 in which an unarmed man was shot and killed, and he was allegedly not sanctioned for the incident. 

In a ruling issued Sunday, December 18, 2022, Judge Pitman criticized the city’s use of excessive force, and maintained that Ms. Ramos can argue at trial that the failure of the city and APD to discipline Taylor in the 2019 incident directly resulted in the death of her son.

Scott Hendler represents Ms. Ramos in her suit against Officer Taylor and the City of Austin. The Austin Monitor quotes him as saying, “There is no infrastructure in place to discipline these officers. They wait until the criminal process runs its course, and by the time that happens, their civil service process expires. They build in this plausible deniability and they are sitting on their hands. It’s time for some real institutional change.”

Click here to read the full December 20, 2022 article in the Austin Monitor.

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