Fight Threat Slowed EMS Response to Fatal Texas Beating

Fears of a gang fight and thick crowds at a nearby celebration prevented paramedics from more quickly getting to a man who was beaten to death outside an East Austin apartment complex, officials said Thursday.

Relatives of David Morales, 40, have questioned the response time of Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services paramedics, saying that they did not think crews got to the scene fast enough.

EMS Director Richard Herrington said paramedics got to Morales about 13 minutes after the first 911 call. The agency's goal for the most serious calls is less than 10 minutes 90 percent of the time.

According to a timeline Herrington provided, an ambulance was near the scene but waited for three minutes and 38 seconds to get closer because a 911 caller had reported a possible gang fight. Because of that call, a dispatcher had advised them not to enter the scene, Herrington said.

Police said they have no indication that the beating was gang-related.

Herrington said it is not unusual for paramedics, who are unarmed, to "stage" near a potentially violent scene until they are given the go-ahead from police officers. A gang fight, possibly involving a large crowd, "is not something we are going to send paramedics into," Herrington said.

Nearly seven minutes passed between the time police notified paramedics that they were safe and when the ambulance arrived.

City officials said they were hindered by heavy vehicle and pedestrian traffic as people left nearby Rosewood Park for celebrations of Juneteenth, which marks the day Texas slaves learned of their emancipation.

Herrington said crews treated Morales for about 12 minutes at the scene before taking him to Brackenridge Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The information about the EMS response came on a day in which investigators continued to plead for possible witnesses to come forward with information, and family members and friends mourned Morales, a house painter on his way home from work when he was killed.

"We are looking for three to four heinous criminals, and we want to bring them to justice," Assistant Police Chief David Carter said. He asked anyone with information to call 477-3588.

Police have said Morales was a passenger in a car that struck a 2-year-old child outside the Booker T. Washington housing complex. The driver was being beaten by several men when Morales tried to help him, investigators said.

Mourners made a small memorial consisting of flowers and candles at the site of the beating.

Morales, who grew up in the Montopolis neighborhood in Southeast Austin, enlisted in the Navy after graduating from Del Valle High School in the 1980s. The third of four children, he never married and never had kids, his younger sister Margaret Morales said.

But he loved to sit on the front porch telling stories to neighborhood children. He would offer a beer or a cigarette to anyone who happened by and asked, she said.

"He would give you the shirt off his back if he had one on," said Martin Mata, who grew up down the street from the Morales family.

Swimming and watching sports, especially the University of Texas Longhorns, were some of Morales favorite activities, Mata said.

tplohetski@statesman.com; 445-3605

Additional material from staff writer Suzannah Gonzales.

News stories provided by third parties are not edited by "Site Publication" staff. For suggestions and comments, please click the Contact link at the bottom of this page.