A mistrial was declared for the police officer who shot and killed an unarmed Black and Hispanic man in Austin, Texas back in 2020. Christopher Taylor was charged with the first-degree murder of Michael Ramos.
According to KVUE News, a judge declared a mistrial after the jury deliberated for more than 34 hours over four days. The jury reportedly sent three notes to the court claiming that they could not agree on a unanimous decision.
Ramos was killed on April 24, 2020, after the Austin Police Department responded to the parking lot of the Rosemont at Oak Valley apartment complex located at 2601 South Pleasant Valley Road.
The officers were responding to a 911 caller claiming a Hispanic man and Hispanic woman were inside a car “smokin’ crack and cookin’ meth.” The caller also falsely claimed that they saw the man, later identified as Ramos, holding a gun and pointing at the woman.
“He, he was pointing it at her, but he got, he got, ma’am, I don’t know what’s goin’ on, but I need y’all to come quick,” said the caller.
The officers arrived on the scene at approximately 6:40 p.m. as Ramos sat inside his vehicle. The APD officers screamed at him to exit the vehicle and show them his hands while also telling him not to move.
“Let me see your hands. On the ground,” they yelled before screaming, “Do not move! Hands up! Michael Ramos, you’re going to listen to everything we say! You need to listen. Keep your hands up!”
Ramos opened his car door as the officers instructed him to get out, to which he complied with his hands in the air. The officers told him to walk toward them before instructing him to stop and lift his shirt.
“Lift up your shirt for me slowly. Turn around! Slowly turn around in a circle!”
Ramos did as the officers asked and ended up near the door of his vehicle. He appeared to be panicked as he said something to the officers, to which they responded, “Hey, relax! Relax, Michael.”
The officers again instructed Ramos to turn around, which seemed to confuse him but he still kept his hands up. One officer replied, “I’ll explain it in a second.”
As Ramos inched behind his car door, he exclaimed, ‘Man, what the f—k did I f—kin’ do? You f—kin’ tripping, dog. Man, what the f—k, man? I ain’t got no gun, dog! Wtf!”
At that point, one of the officers shot Ramos with a bean bag, prompting the scared man to jump into his vehicle and attempt to drive off before being shot by Taylor three times with a rifle.
Clarvita McMillon, Ramos’ sister, said that it “hurt” to hear the judge declare a mistrial for a second time. The first mistrial was declared in May after the court was unable to seat a jury.
“Justice did not get served at all, for his life, you know,” she said. “All the memories, holidays are coming up and this is terrible to get all this news for the holidays.”
Taylor’s defense lawyer, Doug O’Connell, claimed that Ramos’ death was not murder, and his client was “traumatized” by the shooting, according to Fox7 News.
“Chris asked us to convey the fact that he’s very, very sorry and traumatized at this event,” said O’Connell. “He understands that the Ramos family is grieving and he recognizes that and recognizes this was a tragedy. But as we said in the course of this trial, while this may have been a tragedy, it is absolutely not murder.”
O’Connell also noted that the hung jury was deadlocked, with eight jurors voting guilty and four voting not guilty.
Activist Chris Harris said he hopes the state retries the case while noting that Ramos was not a threat to the officers.
“The video is clear that Mike was not a threat. He was slowly turning away,” he said. “The people that were there on the scene that day that saw it live and in person knew that it was unjust and the people that marched in the streets over the next few months knew that it was unjust.”
Prosecutors haven’t announced if they intend to retry Taylor.
