Austin Police Officer Gabriel Walker Prado was seven months out of the police academy when he shot a man through a glass window inside his own apartment for holding a legally owned gun in the air.
Last week, a lawsuit was filed against Prado, accusing him of excessive force and the Austin Police Department of failing to train its officers to de-escalate situations, listing more than 30 incidents from over the years it describes as the “most egregious and notorious examples.”
The incident took place just after 2 a.m. on April 6 after police received a call from a woman complaining about two men arguing from a ground-floor apartment inside a multi-building apartment complex. The two men turned out to be Avelino Medel II, 31, and his elderly father.
Prado was the first cop to walk up to the apartment and began peering through the glass sliding door on the side of the apartment that leads to the unit’s veranda. A man can be heard yelling from inside but it is not clear what exactly he is saying.
“I see two males from the window just yelling,” Prado informed two other two cops who ran up to the scene.
Those two cops walked to the front door of the apartment and were joined by another officer who came from a different direction. Prado remained standing at the side of the unit, looking into the apartment through the glass door.
“It’s going to be an elderly man and the younger whoever, both look Asian,” Prado reported to the other officers at the door.
That was when one of the cops began banging on the front door with a baton.
“Austin Police Department, open the door,” the cop yelled.
And that was when the younger Medel grabbed his gun, pointed it towards the ceiling and approached the door, which sent Prado into a panic.
“Hey, he’s got a gun! Gun! Gun! Gun!” Prado yelled while shooting Medel four times through the glass door.
Medel, who had fallen to the floor, then reached up with his arm to open the door.
“He’s trying to open the door,” Prado yelled.
“Don’t move, I’m going to shoot you again! Stop moving, or I’ll shoot you again!”
“What the f_ck!” Medel yells from inside while on the floor, waving his hands in the air to show he has no gun.
Medel, who survived the shooting, was never charged with a crime. He was not aware it was the police banging on his door, according to one of his attorneys.
“When they arrived, they banged loudly on Mr. Medel’s door, prompting Mr. Medel to be concerned for his safety and pick up his lawfully owned firearm on his way to see who was at his door,” said Jeff Edwards of Edwards Law in a statement released to the media, one of two Austin law firms representing Medel.
“Unbeknownst to Mr. Medel, another APD officer who had only recently left its Academy was watching him through his sliding glass door. Though Mr. Medel held his gun pointed up and away from his front door as he approached to see who was outside and posed no actual danger to anyone, the officer suddenly and without warning fired his service weapon at Mr. Medel, striking him several times, including after Mr. Medel had collapsed to the ground.”
The lawsuit, which was also listed the Feltoon Law firm of Austin, states the following:
APD fails to train its officers to warn citizens and give them time to comply before using force and failed to train Defendant Prado on the need to warn and give time to comply before using force.
Moreover, the City of Austin has systematically failed to supervise or discipline its officers, rarely disciplines officers for using excessive force and rarely investigates or disciplines or failing to de-escalate, or not warning civilians before using force.
As a consequence, APD officers’ engaging in excessive force, failing to warn and failing to de-escalate has become the de facto practice/policy of APD and the City of Austin which is well-known by the City’s policymakers, including its Chief of Police.
Previous Incidents
The lawsuit highlights 31 previous incidents from 2009 to 2023 in which police failed to de-escalate situations as well as failed to warn citizens before using excessive force on them, including the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests in which cops shot at non-violent protesters with “kinetic projectiles” without warning.
Dozens of APD officers shot at non-violent demonstrators with kinetic projectiles fired from shotguns and launchers without any warning over the course of May 30 – June 1, 2020.
Despite the extensive police presence at the demonstrations, including numerous officers who could have intervened to prevent demonstrators from being seriously injured, no bystander officers intervened to protect unarmed civilians. This failure to intervene and put a stop to the illegal, unconscionable, and unreasonable shooting left numerous innocent individuals at the protest with serious, life altering injuries.
Not a single officer has been disciplined for the intentional firing of kinetic projectiles into crowds without warning or the failure to intervene to stop their misuse during the protests, even though Chief Henderson and her predecessors Chacon and Manley personally knew that shotguns and kinetic projectiles were being used inappropriately, dangerously, and against hundreds of nonviolent people without warning.
Since then, nothing has changed at the Austin Police Department, according to the attorneys representing Medel.
“The Austin Police Department needs to train its officers that the presence of a legally owned firearm in a home does not authorize the use of deadly force,” said Edwards in his statement.
“After all, more than 45 percent of Texans report they live with a firearm in their homes. Mr. Medel was lawfully armed in his home and did not constitute a threat to officers when he went to see who was violently pounding on his door in the early hours of the morning.”
Jason Feltoon of Feltoon Law stated that “everyone should feel safe in their own home.”
“By shooting Mr. Medel when he posed no threat to anyone, the Austin Police Department destroyed Mr. Medel’s sense of safety and caused lasting injuries.”
