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FATAL BEATING IN AUSTIN
Crowd kills passenger of car that struck child
No arrests yet after Juneteenth festivities that took a tragic turn
By POLLY ROSS HUGHES
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau
Man fatally beaten by crowd AUSTIN — A crowd of Juneteenth partyers outside an East Austin housing project turned violent with several beating a man to death after the car he was riding in apparently struck a small child.
A veteran police official said Wednesday that he never had seen such a "spontaneous" eruption of mob violence.
Witnesses reported that several males attacked David Rivas Morales, 40, who was riding home from a painting job with a co-worker his family knew only as "Victor."
A preliminary autopsy showed Morales — who stepped out of the vehicle to defend the driver from the angry crowd — died of blunt trauma, police said.
No arrests have been made.
Police declined to identify the toddler who was struck in the parking lot Tuesday night, but said he was not seriously injured.
Margaret Morales, the victim's sister, wiped away tears Wednesday as she sat on her stoop at the Booker T. Washington apartment complex, staring at the parking lot where her big brother died.
"He was bleeding really bad from the head. There was blood everywhere," she said.
Police said hundreds of revelers packed into the parking lot as 3,000 attending a city-sponsored Juneteenth festival a block away began dispersing.
"The whole parking lot was full of cars. The street was full of cars. It was really packed," the victim's sister said. "The whole celebration was going on, and my brother was being dropped off from work when this happened."
Juneteenth celebrates June 19, 1865, the day Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston with news of the Emancipation Proclamation, which had freed slaves two years earlier.
"It's sad for the city," said Commander Harold Piatt, who leads the Austin Police Department's homicide division.
Piatt, who said he'd worked the city's famed Sixth Street entertainment district for years, said he had never before seen such a "spontaneous" eruption of mob violence.
Morales is the 11th homicide victim in the state's capital city this year.
"I've been doing this for 28 years. This is the first time I can ever recall something like this," Piatt said, noting he knew of no one who tried to prevent the attack on Morales.
He attributed the crowd's reaction to the boy being struck, although he said he suspected alcohol might have played a role.
"It's not a hate crime," he said. "It's not racially motivated in any way. The assault has nothing to do with the (city-sponsored) Juneteenth celebration."
Driver cooperating
Piatt said police believe anywhere from two to six assailants attacked Morales, but detectives were continuing to sort through conflicting accounts of events.
About two dozen people were crowded directly around the vehicle that struck the boy, he said.
Police, who indicated no guns or knives were used in the assault, did not identify the driver, calling him a witness who is cooperating with the homicide investigation.
"It's unusual where you have what appears to be multiple assailants attacking and actually harming (the victim) to where it causes death," said Piatt.
"You get one or two people who lose control. If you've got a number of folks around, it could spread very quickly to the crowd," he said. "People do things they normally wouldn't do."
Taken off life support
Margaret Morales, the victim's sister, said she ran outside her apartment and into the crowded parking lot around
9 p.m. after a child alerted her to the attack on her brother.
"All I could see was my brother lying there," she said. "He was barely breathing. I believe he could hear my voice. Somebody just said some guys jumped him."
Margaret Morales said those remaining at the scene were screaming, asking why there was no ambulance.
"The ambulance took forever, about 30 minutes" she said.
The ambulance arrived in less than two minutes after being called but was ordered to wait near the scene until cleared by police, said Warren Hassinger, spokesman for the Austin-Travis County Emergency Services.
He said David Morales arrived at the hospital 35 minutes after emergency workers received the 911 call.
Margaret Morales said her mother, Mary, ordered life support removed at Brackenridge Hospital after medical staff told her that her son would not survive.
On Wednesday, the family began planning David Morales' burial, saying it would need donations to cover funeral costs, including a casket.
"He liked to watch football, basketball. He liked to hang out with his friends," Morales' sister said. "He was a real generous guy and loving person."
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He was not driving recklessly, the kid was not even hurt bad. The parents were just not watching the kid well enough(in a parking lot with cars) like so many ignorant parents don't do, and the car hit him. I see this all the time when I go to places like Walmart, where ignorant lowlife dirtbags just let their kids walk way ahead of them or behind them in parking lots that are full of cars and trucks. I just want to go up to them and ask them why they even have kids, because it is obvious that they do not give a if they get run over or not.Things like this set back interracial harmony back 10 years.
