Four Texas cops shot a man multiple times initially reporting it was necessary to shoot him so many times because he fired a gun at them.
But three days after the April 7 shooting, Austin police issued a contrary report stating three of the officers were only following the lead of the first officer who erroneously began shooting rounds at the man claiming he pointed a gun at him.
Turns out, Lawrence Parrish never shot a gun and maybe did not even have a gun.
“We already confirmed that he ain’t shot no gun,” said Parrish’s older brother, Cluren Williams, who added that police shot his brother nine times.
“We have yet to confirm if he had one.”
Then, more than a week after Austin police shot him, the Travis County Sheriff’s Office would not allow Parrish’s family to visit him as he recovered.
They did, however, allow his mother to visit him in the hospital immediately after the shooting as you can see in the video below.
But that all came to a stop once the truth came out that he never shot at officers.
“They won’t give us any access. We’re not getting any logical explanations,” Williams told KXAN on Friday. “We’re not even getting any good reasoning why the mother can’t see him.”
Brothers Cluren Williams, left, and Lawrence Parrish in photo on left. Cluren Williams, left, Lawrence Parrish in photo on right.
A spokesperson for the sheriff’s office, who is in charge of maintaining custody of Parrish, would not elaborate on why Parrish’s family is not able to visit him but told KXAN he is considered an inmate and said the department adheres to extreme safety protocols because hospitals are not controlled like jails.
Williams, however, says the police aren’t being transparent enough and remains skeptical of the police narrative, especially after Austin police claimed no dash cam footage of the shooting exists.
“The police don’t have any footage to go off of. The police only have what the police say.”
Austin police charged Parrish with aggravated assault against a public servant for threatening officers after they responded to a call at his apartment, even though no bodily injuries were caused to police officers and no weapons were discharged by Parrish.
The incident happened after his roommate called 911 reporting Parrish was on drugs and in an “altered mental state.”
The roommate told police earlier in the day Parrish was laying on the ground saying he had just been shot in the chest by police and was cursing and yelling acting as if he was actually arguing with a police officer.
Due to his alleged behavior, the roommate left with her children.
She allegedly later returned that evening and found Parrish in the street with a gun nearby.
That’s when she called 911.
When Austin police arrived at Parrish’s home on April 7 at 9:54 p.m. on the night of the shooting, they say he’d already gone back inside the house.
According to police, four officers including Dane O’Neill, Paul Bianchi, Marcos Johnson and Jordan Wagstaff then set up in front of the house and tried to convince Parrish to come out, but say he stayed inside for a “period of time.”
They called in a SWAT team.
Before SWAT arrived, police say the four officers then shot Parrish after he continued stepping in and out of the house sporadically at one point brandishing a gun, which police claim was a .40 caliber rifle Parrish had fired at them.
But that story changed on Monday afternoon, April 10, when Austin Police Chief Brian Manley said during a news conference that it does not appear the suspect ever fired a weapon at the officers.
“We now believe, based on where we are at in the investigation, that he did not fire, even though our officers that night at the scene believed that he had, in fact, fired the weapon,” Manley told the press.
The arrest affidavit, filed the day after the shooting, states the officer closest to Parrish claimed he saw Parrish “raise his rifle towards his direction.” The officer states he fired two rounds at Parrish then heard more gunshots when he ducked down to take cover, but wasn’t sure where the shots came from.
Parrish was struck by several more bullets.
“The shots that were fired were all in rapid succession and all within one second time and it was very quick. And the officers’ perception at that time was that he had indeed fired towards them as well,” Chief Manley explained.
Interim Chief of Police for the Austin Police Department Brian Manley. Photo from Austin American-Statesman.
“Perception in those seconds when everything’s unfolding and you’re in a critical incident . . . sometimes perceptions are not always 100% accurate.”
Parrish was taken to the hospital and treated, but was transported to jail over the weekend, according to Williams who implied Austin police apparently didn’t have the best intentions when four cops blasted rounds into his brother’s body.
“My brother was shot nine times. OK? Let’s be clear with that. He was shot over nine times. And all his wounds were in his upper body, and his upper shoulder close to his head.”
Austin police say an official investigation into the shooting is underway, but are limited to only audio footage of the event.
Currently, a lawsuit filed in federal court by Austin attorney Millie Thompson lists Austin police officer Dane O’Neill as a defendant in a civil rights lawsuit after he threatened 34-year-old Kristopher Cody King with arrest unless he consented to allowing officers to photograph his tattoos, according to the Austin American-Statesman.
Williams shared video footage with PINAC taken by Parrish’s family April 11 before they were blocked from visiting him in the hospital.
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