Michael Bullock

Baseball lover, former txlege staffer, 7th generation Texan, Austin Police Association President

[Meredith Aldis @MeredithonFOX7]

In court it was revealed Mondragon is NOT a U.S. citizen & currently has an ICE hold.
He was also on probation through the juvenile justice system & has a juvenile detainer.

[Michael Bullock @MBullockATX]

How about we do the one thing within council’s control and give APD the technology needed to do their job and catch criminals.

This could have ended HOURS earlier if not for council’s actions taking LPRs away from APD.

[Vanessa Fuentes 💃���� @VanessaForATX]

This weekend, Austin experienced a level of senseless violence no one should ever face.

My heart goes out to everyone impacted - including the victims, their loved ones, and every Austinite who feared for their safety...

[Michael Bullock @MBullockATX]

Our investigators lost critical hours tracking down today’s shooting suspects because Austin’s City Council chose politics over public safety and prevented APD from using license plate readers and other crime-fighting technology.

Those cameras could have helped identify suspect vehicles faster, track movements across the city, and potentially stop additional shootings before more innocent Austinites became victims.

Instead, our officers were handcuffed by their own city leaders.

While violent criminals exploit every advantage they can get, Austin police are being denied tools that departments across the country use every day to solve violent crimes and protect their communities.

How many more victims will it take before this council starts prioritizing public safety over political activism?

[World News Tonight @ABCWorldNews]

Arrests have been made in Austin after at least 10 shootings in the last 24 hours. four victims have been shot, police believe the shootings have been at random. Alex Stone reports. https://t.co/4czYYhc8TN

[Michael Bullock @MBullockATX]

Here’s some insight as to why we struggle to recruit at APD. Who wants to come to a place where judges, DAs, and elected officials support criminals more than their own police department.

The political environment is a significant deterrent to potential recruits.

[Austin Justice @AustinJustice]

AUSTIN MAN charged with trying to solicit a child was granted a one-dollar bond by a Travis County judge. He absconded.

Last month, Austin PD pulled over a car leaving a South 1st game room for a traffic violation. Jorge Rodriguez, 35, was in the passenger seat. He gave officers a fake name. They found a meth pipe in his backpack. A records check turned up his outstanding warrant on the child solicitation case.

While transporting him to jail, the officers realized Rodriguez had slipped his handcuffs. They pulled over on the I-35 service road. When they opened the back door, he bolted out and charged at them. The officers tackled him to the pavement as he tried to bite the officer's face, and had to be punched in the head five times before he stopped fighting. Both officers left the scene bleeding.

Rodriguez has 25 cases in Travis County, of which nine were felonies --
- 3 for family violence assault
- 2 for burglary
- 2 for cocaine
- 1 for robbery, and
- online solicitation of a child.

Two were outright dismissed, two were reduced to misdemeanors, and two ended in probation he later violated. His longest sentence was 2 years in prison.

Three pending felonies. Zero jury trials in any of his prior cases.

[Austin Justice @AustinJustice]

AUSTIN MAN murders his parents and brother inside their home Thursday morning -- just months after prosecutors dismissed his weapons charge.

Travis County prosecutors had Joshua Dahan in custody twice before. They let him go both times.

March 2024: Police respond to a reckless driver call and finds Dahan unconscious in his Mercedes. The car reeks of marijuana. A Glock 23 sits in plain view on the front passenger seat. He admits the gun and weed is his.
- Charge: Unlawful Carrying of a Weapon
- Outcome: DISMISSED, July 2025.

July 2024: Arrested again, this time on a felony drug charge -- while the gun case was still pending.
- Outcome: DA REJECTED. No charges filed.

So nine months after the weapons charge was dismissed, he murders his family.

[Michael Bullock @MBullockATX]

When your argument leans on Reddit posts and a buzzword headline, you’re not informing the public - you’re trying to shape an anti-police narrative. The reality buried in the story is simple: fewer officers mean slower response times. Everything else is spin.

Maybe if self proclaimed “experts” that have no law enforcement experience would quit micromanaging our department and officers - officers could do the job they’re being asked to do.

[Michael Bullock @MBullockATX]

The DA needs his own lawyer to defend his decisions as a prosecutor. That’s a sad testament to where our “justice” system in Travis County stands.

[Austin Justice @AustinJustice]

Homicides in notoriously violent blue cities are dropping fast, but not so much in Austin.

Compare homicides in the the five years pre-Covid vs post-Covid:
- Baltimore: down 56%
- San Francisco: down 49%
- D.C.: down 7%
- Memphis: down 3%
- Austin: UP 32%

DA José Garza took office January 2021. Every year of his tenure has had a higher homicide rate than any of the five years before he took office.

[Michael Bullock @MBullockATX]

Spot on. Thank you Jennifer!!

[Andrew Lamparski @andrewlamparski]

Incoming board president of @ctx_commission Jennifer Stevens on the divide between police and prosecutors in Travis County:

"I don't think we've yet seen any action out of the district attorney's office to try to bridge a divide at all."

@cbsaustin

[Michael Bullock @MBullockATX]

You don’t get to talk about “justice delayed” while ignoring how and why the delay happened in the first place. And you don’t get to claim you’re avoiding the court of public opinion while issuing statements - long before taking office - designed to sway it.

Our officers deserve fairness, not political prosecution. They deserve the same presumption of good faith we ask them to extend to the public every day.

Given this DA’s record - missed deadlines, withheld evidence, sanctions from judges, and criticism from his own party - the only thing he seems ready for is more rhetoric, not justice.

[Vinny Martorano @VinnyMartorano]

The Travis County District Attorney’s office just sent me this statement regarding the recent allegations of withholding evidence and violating due process rights.

The allegations stem from an APD officer’s felony aggravated assault charges during the 2020 George Floyd riots.

@cbsaustin

[Michael Bullock @MBullockATX]

Secret meetings between the DA’s office and city officials while prosecuting an APD officer - then failing to disclose it?

That’s not justice. That’s politics.

Dismiss the charges.

[Meredith Aldis @MeredithonFOX7]

BREAKING: The attorneys for an APD officer facing charges for his response to the 2020 protests has filed a motion to have the case dismissed.
This comes after alleged ‘secret’ meetings the district attorney’s office had with city officials.
@fox7austin
https://t.co/8e62F7kUtk

[Austin Justice @AustinJustice]

AUSTIN MAN walks up to a stranger using a computer on the fourth floor of the Central Library, punches him in the head so hard he's knocked out of his chair, stomps on his head multiple times while he lies unconscious on the floor -- then calmly walks back to his own computer and sits down.

The victim is in critical condition with life-threatening injuries. Police Chief Lisa Davis (@APDChiefDavis) happened to be in the building and made the arrest herself.

On a city bus in 2024, Vasquez threatened an 11-year-old boy, cocked his leg back to kick him full-force, then stood up and punched the kid's mother in the face. She's a Spanish speaker and couldn't even understand the threats. A female bystander tackled Vasquez to protect them. He punched her in the head repeatedly. All was on video.

Child endangerment charge and two assaults charges. Dismissed.

Six months before that, he punched a CapMetro bus driver in the mouth hard enough to cause a bloody laceration. During the arrest, he called an officer a racial slur and spit directly in his face. Felony harassment of a public servant. Dismissed to "pre-trial diversion."

He also had a felony terroristic threat against a public servant. Also dismissed.

His Travis County record:
• 10 cases
• 3 felonies -- all dismissed
• 4 assaults -- all dismissed
• 0 jury trials

Now someone is fighting for their life in a hospital because a man with a documented pattern of unprovoked violence kept walking out of the courthouse.

[Michael Bullock @MBullockATX]

Spot on. You’ve got our support in Austin.

[Candy Noble @CandyNobleHD89]

We believe in second chances and fresh starts. However, when a juvenile with a violent past becomes an adult with a violent present, the public should be have all that information. I will be filing that bill.

[Collin Rugg @CollinRugg]

NEW: The NYPD chief who was caught on camera chasing down the ISIS-inspired New York City bomb throwers speaks out.

46-year-old commander of Patrol Borough Manhattan North, Chief Aaron Edwards, is speaking out following the incident.

“I always say, we’re all cops, right? Regardless of rank, regardless of life, regardless of position, you’re a cop first. Once a cop, always a cop,” he told the New York Post.

“When you see danger, you have that cop in you. You react to it.”

[Michael Bullock @MBullockATX]

@gop_girl @Austin_Police Thank you so much!!

[Michael Bullock @MBullockATX]

Over the past few days, we’ve received countless messages from people across Austin and beyond asking how the officers who responded to the mass shooting in downtown on Sunday morning are doing, and expressing their gratitude for the way they responded.

We want you to know that those messages mean a lot. Our officers see them, and your support reminds them why they serve this community.

With the body camera footage being released today, many people have also asked how they can support the officers who ran toward danger to protect others.

If you want to say “thank you” in a meaningful way, please consider donating to the Austin Police Benevolent Foundation. The Foundation exists specifically to support officers and their families when they go through the toughest moments in their careers - moments like this.

The Foundation takes care of the officers who take care of this city.

If you’d like to contribute, you can donate at: https://t.co/gRvEXTqDbk

Thank you for continuing to stand with the men and women of the Austin Police Department.

[Michael Bullock @MBullockATX]

Thank you to every community member, group, and elected official who reached out on behalf of our officers to make this happen.

While I can count on one hand the times we’ve agreed - I also want to thank DA Garza.

I’m grateful to see this statement from District Attorney Garza clearing our officers and showing no action will be taken by their office. This is the right decision and I’m thankful to District Attorney Garza for this outcome. He has had a distrusting and dysfunctional relationship with our officers since he took office and that trust is not built back in a day. My hope is that this is the first step in building a better relationship with our officers who are on the front lines every day working to keep this city safe.

[Tony Plohetski @tplohetski]

NEW: Travis County DA Jose Garza has just issued a letter to the police department further clarifying his position that his office is closing its review of officers’ actions in a mass shooting and “no action will be taken.”

[Vinny Martorano @VinnyMartorano]

This is George Davis. He was one of the victims who was shot early Sunday during the mass shooting at bar in downtown Austin.

The bullet fractured multiple ribs, and he had to have it surgically removed. Davis was discharged from the hospital yesterday.

@cbsaustin

[Brooke Taylor @Brooketaylortv]

Critics are calling progressive District Attorney Jose Garza’s policy, which requires all officer involved shooting cases to go to a grand jury, outrageous. It comes after reports that the 3 officers who heroically shot and killed the Austin mass shooter would likely face a grand jury.

This never implied that the District Attorney was ever pursuing criminal charges. Rather, it is a requirement for all officer-involved shooting cases to be presented to a grand jury in Travis County under the progressive DA Jose Garza (and in many other Texas jurisdictions that I have covered).

I just spoke with the attorney hired by the Union to represent the Austin PD officers if the case goes to a grand jury. DA Garza said his office is not pursuing criminal charges and called any counterclaims politically motivated. However, he did not say whether the case will still be presented to a grand jury, as per policy, and the union also remains unsure. The DA office has not responded to my emails requesting clarification.

But it is now raising questions about the bigger picture—whether this blanket policy should even be in place. Attorney Doug O’Connell explains that DA Jose Garza instituted this policy after taking office in 2021, reportedly at the direction of Wren Collective, a criminal-justice reform group that provides financial support to progressive prosecutors. He also claims there is no legal basis for the policy and notes that it adds stress to an already stressful job for officers. “Every time they are dispatched to a violent criminal call, they have to be thinking, I could end up dead or indicted,” he said.

[Michael Bullock @MBullockATX]

Key word - “should”. Yet it needs to be said.

I appreciate that DA Garza has publicly stated he will not seek any charges against our officers. Yet he still hasn’t clarified if that means he will continue on with the grand jury process or decline to present.

My hope is that the DA understands he has built a dysfunctional and distrusting relationship with law enforcement in Travis County. So while it should go without saying, the DA has made it necessary.