TX - Cameron Redus, 23, UIW student, fatally shot by campus PD officer, 6 Dec 2013

[KateB]

The Rivard Report is a San Antonio based independent online magazine. Guajardo is a three-term student body president at UIW.

‘You’re Scaring Me': Why the Redus Case Should Unsettle Us All
Jonathan Guajardo
26 March, 2015 at 01:01
http://www.therivardreport.com/youre-scaring-me-why-the-redus-case-should-unsettle-us-all/

The months following the unjustified killing of Robert Cameron Redus provoked feelings of outrage and despondency among students at the University of the Incarnate Word (UIW), yet also a glimmer of hope.
We struggled to piece together a list of recommendations that would prevent such a senseless, off-campus killing of an unarmed student from ever happening again.

Zealously, we crammed into tight meeting rooms and hammered out a well-constructed list of simple measures to reshape the university’s campus police department.

We believed our recommendations would be taken seriously by the university administration, which would place the safety of its students above its own political calculations and legal maneuvering.

We were wrong.

much more at link.

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

http://www.thegarcialawgroup.com/en/blog/texas-supreme-court-to-deliberate-wrongful-death-case-of-23-year-old-uiw-student/

In the month of December, the nine justices of the Texas Supreme Court heard verbal arguments in a highly contested wrongful death case involving the untimely death of a student from the University of Incarnate Word in San Antonio. The wrongful death lawsuit was filed by the family of Cameron Redus, a 23-year old senior, who was shot and killed in December 2013 by UIW police Cpl. Chris Carter after a physical altercation at an off-campus apartment.

According to facts presented at the trial level, Carter was on-duty, but several blocks away from the school when he pulled Redus over under the suspicion of driving drunk. Audio from a body microphone recorded Redus refusing to comply with Carter’s commands and then apparently getting into a tussle with the officer. Following the victim’s contentious attitude, he was fatally shot five times at close range.

During the hour-long hearing with the Texas Supreme Court, attorneys representing the University claimed sovereign immunity under the Eighth Amendment. The argument aimed to prove that the private Catholic university should be provided the same protection against civil liability as a state agency because the police department functions like other state police departments.

Using a process known as an “interlocutory appeal”, the parties recommended that the high court set a precedent on the matter. Both the University and estate of the decedent were thoroughly probed by the governing body in order to come to a decision regarding the case.

The court’s opinion, which is expected to be released sometime next summer, will have a huge impact on whether or not the deceased family will be able to continue their wrongful death action against the university.

Three years after son’s death, Redus parents still grieving