Austin police officer Christopher Taylor has been fired from the department.
Taylor was sentenced to two years in prison Tuesday for deadly conduct in the 2019 fatal shooting of Mauris DeSilva, an Austin man who was in a mental health crisis. Taylor is the first officer in the department’s modern history to be indicted and convicted for shooting someone while on duty.
State law bars people convicted of felonies from serving as police officers. APD confirmed to KUT that Taylor had been fired Wednesday.
Taylor was released on a personal bond Tuesday evening. He has appealed his sentence.
Following the sentencing, the head of the city's police union said the Travis County District Attorney's office had "declared war upon law enforcement."
"In light of all of this, I believe the Austin Police Department must stop responding to mental health calls," Michael Bullock said in a video. "We have never claimed to be mental health experts, yet we are continually scrutinized for our handling of these situations."
After a 2018 audit found the department had the nation's highest rate of deaths during mental health-related calls, APD boosted its mandatory training for these situations. Since then, the city has struggled to staff its police department, and city leaders have had trouble funding citizen-led programs to respond to people experiencing mental health crises.
