AUSTIN (Talk1370.com) -- The Travis County District Attorney's office is looking into allegations of police brutality during last weekend's protests in downtown Austin, several of which resulted in serious injury due to the use of "less-lethal" bean bag rounds.
Travis County District Attorney Margaret Moore said Friday night her office is looking into the investigations already being undertaken by Austin Police, 10 of which are currently open.
"As soon as we learned of the allegations arising out of the recent protests, we requested and were granted access to the investigations currently being conducted by the Special Investigations Unit of the Austin Police Department," Moore said in a statement. "We have assigned prosecutors and are joining the investigations. We are reviewing the status of these investigations daily."
Police Chief Brian Manley told the Austin City Council Thursday that the department would no longer use the bean bag rounds in a crowd control situation. Earlier in the week, Manley identified two cases the department was investigating that had resulted in serious injuries and sparked significant public outrage.
Council spent much of Thursday and Friday discussing the protests, the police response, and hearing from hundreds of citizens who signed up to speak during the comment period. At least three Council members directly called for Manley to resign his post, with a fourth saying significant changes need to be made.