Naked City

After considering seven days worth of evidence presented over the course of one month, including testimony from nine witnesses, a Travis Co. grand jury on Aug. 16 returned a no-bill against APD Officer Julie Schroeder, officially clearing her of any criminal wrongdoing in connection with the June shooting death of 18-year-old Daniel Rocha.

On June 9, Rocha was killed with a single 9mm bullet to the back, fired by seven-year veteran Schroeder during a traffic stop in Southeast Austin that police say was connected to an undercover drug investigation. According to police, Rocha fought with Schroeder and Sgt. Don Doyle; equipment, including Schroeder's Taser gun, was knocked from Schroeder's belt, and both Doyle and Schroeder were knocked to the ground. Officially, police have said only that Schroeder shot Rocha during the "struggle." In an attempt to fill in the gaps, other police sources explained that when Schroeder righted herself, she realized her Taser was missing and, seeing Rocha hovering over Doyle, feared that Rocha had taken the weapon and was about to use it on Doyle. In response, she fired a single bullet, striking Rocha in the back. Even with the additional information, questions have remained – like, why didn't Schroeder try using pepper spray or her baton to subdue Rocha before resorting to deadly force? Bobby Taylor, the lawyer representing Rocha's mother Daniela Rocha, has disputed the official account, saying, in part, that witnesses at the scene that night denied that there was any struggle, saying instead that police simply pulled Rocha from the car, knocked him down and shot him dead. Unfortunately, exactly what went down is likely to remain unclear since neither Doyle nor Schroeder's in-car video camera was operational during the incident. Why neither camera was running – as policy dictates – is likely to be one question Internal Affairs detectives will seek to answer in their administrative review of the case, which will commence now that the criminal inquiry has concluded. Police estimate that the IA inquiry will take between four and six weeks to complete; the case will then move to the Office of the Police Monitor's Citizen Review Panel for consideration. A federal investigation of the shooting is ongoing. (For more on the case, see "Rocha's Death," News, June 17.)