Operation Undaunted News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Save Austin Now Says It Gathered Enough Signatures to Add Police Funding Requirement to Ballot Austin City Council voted to slash police budget, leading to rise in crime Save Austin Now says it has collected enough signatures to add its proposal to require certain funding levels for the city’s police department to the November ballot. The bipartisan advocacy group announced it received more than 25,600 signatures for its latest petition. Once the signatures are verified, a proposed public safety law that requires funding the Austin Police Department will go on the November ballot. “We are...

In Waco Tuesday, a federal grand jury returned an indictment against 28-year-old former U.S. Army soldier Ricardo Manuele Davila-DeJesus for discharging a firearm while on Fort Hood over the weekend, stated U.S. Attorney Ashley C. Hoff and FBI Special Agent in Charge Christopher Combs, San Antonio Division. The indictment charges Davila-DeJesus with aggravated assault with a dangerous weapon. According to court documents, on Saturday, the defendant became intoxicated and got into an argument with several individuals inside the barracks. The argument continued outside when the defendant pulled...

Now, one week later, the long-term response to this crisis seems unclear. On Saturday, two days after Christmas, Cadarian Connell Parker, 19, was shot and killed on Houston Street on Killeen’s north side. A 5-year-old child was wounded in that same shooting. The following day, three 18-year-old males were injured in a shooting that was caught on video in the 2700 block of Alma Drive. Shyheim Khali Matthews, 18, has been charged with three counts of aggravated assault-bodily injury with a deadly weapon in connection with that incident. During a Monday press conference, Killeen Police Depa...

In context: 'Operation Undaunted' and crime in Austin U.S. Attorney Gregg Sofer is the latest official to link rising crime rates in Austin with the Austin City Council’s recent decision to cut police funding. On Dec. 18, Sofer stood at a podium before Austin’s press corps to announce that his office will be joining state efforts to combat violent crime in the capital — an initiative called Operation Undaunted. Sofer stood flanked by two large cardboard cutouts with charts that compared the city’s homicide and aggravated assault rates in 2020 to those in 2019. Through the first 10 m...

Tue, Dec 22nd 2020 12:12pm — Tim Cushing Movements to "defund" law enforcement agencies have sprung up around the nation, trailing the protests against police violence that spread across the country following the killing of an unarmed black man by Minneapolis police officers in May. In most cases, no one's looking to completely dismantle the local police force. Instead, legislators and activists are seeking to move some of their funding to other areas -- like social services, mental health care, and other crime reduction efforts that shouldn't involve armed officers. This hasn't stopped po...