Naked City

Last week, a Travis Co. Grand Jury returned a no-bill against 16-year APD Officer John Coffey, who shot and killed 24-year-old Sophia King June 11 after responding to a disturbance call at her Rosewood Avenue home. According to police, King was threatening to stab a Housing Authority of the city of Austin employee when Coffey shot her.

APD Chief Stan Knee said officers had responded to more than 30 calls at King's house, and knew that she had a history of instability. However, her aggressive actions on June 11 made it impossible for officers at the scene to even try to "de-escalate" the situation before they were forced to take action to save the housing authority employee, said Austin Police Association President Mike Sheffield. According to Knee, an internal investigation into the incident will be completed by late July.

Many East Austin residents and local activists are not satisfied with the grand jury's decision, which they say came too quickly to be thorough. "That was really no surprise to us," said local NAACP chapter President Nelson Linder. The NAACP is exploring other options, he said, "like the Dept. of Justice. Our investigation will be much more extensive. We are looking into areas they haven't, like the housing authority. We believe the housing authority employee [whom King was allegedly running towards with the knife] may have contributed to the incident."