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A judge has set a hearing for the end of this month in the case of Wilber Garces Perez, the man who was shot by an ICE officer in Austin on Sunday. Austin police have released a pair of videos showing a before-and-after perspective of the incident.
Camp Mystic is under investigation by the Texas Rangers, who may be pursuing criminal charges against the camp after 28 people died during flooding last summer.
Texas must install air conditioning at all of its state prisons by the end of 2029. The ruling from a federal judge caps a yearslong lawsuit over dangerous heat in the state’s prisons.
And: In case you didn’t get enough music after HAAM Day, we’ve got the songs from September that you need to know.
The full transcript of this episode of Austin Signal is available on the KUT & KUTX Studio website. The transcript is also available as subtitles or captions on some podcast apps.
Jerry Quijano [00:00:08] A judge has set a hearing for the end of this month in the case of Wilbur Garces Perez, the man who was shot by an ICE officer in Austin on Sunday, and Garces Peres must be present for that hearing. Austin police released a pair of videos on Tuesday showing a before and after perspective of the incident, where they came from, and what they show. And Camp Mystic is under investigation by the Texas Rangers, who may be pursuing criminal charges against the camp after 28 people died during flooding last summer. Plus, Texas must install air conditioning at all of its state prisons by the end of 2029. More about the ruling from a federal judge coming up on today’s show.
KUT Announcer: Laurie Gallardo [00:00:44] The Austin Signal is a production of KUT News, hosted by Jerry Quijano.
Jerry Quijano [00:00:49] And in case you didn’t get enough music after Ham Day, we’ve got the best songs from September that you absolutely need to know. That’s up next, right here on Austin Signal. Howdy out there, this is Austin Signal. I’m your host, Jerry Quijano. It is Wednesday, September 23rd. Thank you for tuning in and making us part of your day. The KUT Newsroom is working to bring you the latest about the ICE shooting that happened in North Austin on Sunday. Austin police are conducting their own investigation into that shooting. And they’ve shared with the public video showing that the man, Wilbur Garces Perez, was pulled over earlier that afternoon. As we hear from KUT’s Gabriel Velasquez-Neda, Police also say there was a vehicle pursued prior to the shooting.
Gabriel Velasquez Niera [00:01:41] Austin Police and Mayor Kirk Watson held a news conference Tuesday afternoon and presented some information that contradicts what Wilbur Garces Perez, the man who was shot by ICE and his lawyer, have been saying about what happened.
Chief Davis [00:01:55] Wilbur is a young man, he is about to be 29, from Venezuela.
Gabriel Velasquez Niera [00:01:59] At the news conference, Police Chief Lisa Davis showed dashcam video recorded by an off-duty police detective of a traffic stop about 10 to 15 minutes before the shooting. The Department of Homeland Security tells QUT the stop was targeted. The video shows ICE agents and vehicles surrounding Garces Perez’s car. Davis says what followed was a vehicle pursuit of about 15 minutes.
Chief Davis [00:02:20] There is some video that we have and again we’re processing that video of a pursuit that went through some of the neighborhoods there.
Gabriel Velasquez Niera [00:02:25] That contradicts what Garcés Pérez’s lawyer told my KUT colleague earlier that day.
Kate Lincoln Goldfinch [00:02:29] What he has said is that he was sideswiped by a big black vehicle. He didn’t know that it was a police vehicle. And when he realized that he is being pulled over by the police, he was trying to get his car off of, out of the middle of the road. And they rammed him again very hard. You can see the side of the car is just completely damaged. And then before he could even get out of his car, an agent came up on the passenger side and shot through the window.
Gabriel Velasquez Niera [00:02:59] The next video is shown by EPD with cell phone and body cam footage of the traffic stop. Now, a warning to listeners, we’re about to hear the moment Garces Perez was shot. Chief Davis says not all the video or audio is being revealed because of the ongoing investigation. So in the next video shown, we don’t actually hear what the APD officer and the ICE agent say to each other. What we do hear is Garza-Esperez saying he was shot in the back shoulder.
Wilbur Garces Perez [00:03:27] My shoulder, my shoulder, I lost my shoulder Okay
Gabriel Velasquez Niera [00:03:31] and that he was unarmed.
Wilbur Garces Perez [00:03:33] Armless? Armless, here or no? No.
Gabriel Velasquez Niera [00:03:36] The next video is from a bystander at the scene asking Garces Perez why he was shot and him saying it was because he didn’t stop.
Bystander [00:03:42] Did he just shoot you for shooting you? Well, don’t stop me
Gabriel Velasquez Niera [00:03:46] His lawyer, Kate Lincoln Goldfinch, says there needs to be more transparency from DHS.
Chief Davis [00:03:51] The public is trying to piece together a narrative with incomplete information. So we have a bunch of bystander video footage and the timeline and the spacing of the event is really unclear to us at this time. And ultimately that’s because DHS has refused to turn over their dash cam footage and their body cam footage.
Gabriel Velasquez Niera [00:04:09] Gartez Perez is in an ice detention facility in South Texas with the bullet still in his back. His lawyer says he’s been giving a morphine drip at a San Antonio hospital and then Tylenol and ibuprofen at the detention facility. He also has a hearing before a judge in San Antonio scheduled for September 30th, which temporarily halts his deportation order. I’m Gabriel Velasquez-Neda in Austin.
Jerry Quijano [00:04:37] An Austin-based federal judge has ordered Texas to install air conditioning in all of its prisons by the end of the decade. Tuesday’s ruling from district judge Robert Pittman is the latest development in a years-long battle over hot temperatures in state lockups, which advocacy groups say have led to heat-related illnesses and even deaths of some inmates. KUT’s government accountability reporter Andrew Weber has been following the story. He’s with us now for more. Welcome back to the show, Andrew.
Andrew Weber [00:05:02] Yes, sir. Thanks for having me, Chair.
Jerry Quijano [00:05:03] Okay, so first give us a little bit of background here. Who are the plaintiffs and what are they alleging?
Andrew Weber [00:05:07] The plaintiffs are three groups that have folks either who are incarcerated or family members or comprised of family members who are incarcerated and basically they’re saying that the conditions in state jails are inhumane. The temperatures there in the summer because they’re on air conditioned regularly get into the triple digits and that’s led to deaths and heat related illness. TDCJ has said that it has downplayed the sort of effect of heat. And they’ve said that we’re trying to do the best we can to provide mitigation strategies, fans and sort of cool rags for an air conditioned units, but they say that’s not enough and they say the agency has kind of slow walked plans after years and years and year of litigation. So tell us a little bit more about this rule.
Jerry Quijano [00:05:54] Ruling from Judge Pittman, what’s in it?
Andrew Weber [00:05:57] Yeah, it’s 150 pages. So a lot, and a lot of it isn’t super shocking if you’ve been following this lawsuit. Last year, Judge Pittman said that this was basically unconstitutional. The CDCJ didn’t have a plan that was, you know, that they were basically slow-walking it and because of that, people were either succumbing to heat-related illness or dying. He said that this was, they were basically ignoring the problem and that they This was cruel and unusual punishment for the two thirds of folks who are living in these units that are on air conditioned, which is about 90,000 inmates. 90,00 inmates, how many facilities are we talking about here? 86, 86 prisons that TDCJ runs. And their argument has been, okay, well, a lot of these buildings are really old. The oldest prison in Texas in Huntsville was built in 1849. Rusk was built 1883. Uh, so these buildings are hard to retrofit and, and it’s, and it’s costly, they’ve said that it could cost up to $1.4 billion. And they said that, you know, in the interim, we’re trying to get as many beds as we can online with air conditioning, uh, 53,000 at last count, uh, at the beginning of the month. Um, but you know that this could take until at least 2020 or 2033. Excuse me. What has been the response so far from TDCJ? They have said that they, they disagree with this ruling, um, that there and that they’re going to appeal it. And, you know, keep in mind, this is, you know, Texas has been sued over its lack of AC in prisons for 13 years. This has been a lengthy process. And I talked to one of the one of the plaintiffs from this case and the previous case that in 2018 that that forced the the agency to air condition its facility at the PAC unit in Navasota. His name is Charlie Maluf. And he said that, you know, he’s disappointed that they want to appeal this and when they could just, basically install air conditioning units.
Wilbur Garces Perez [00:07:58] To sit there and file an appeal is an absolute waste of taxpayers’ dollars.
Jerry Quijano [00:08:06] Okay, as you said, this has been a years-long battle, and I’m guessing this probably won’t be the last word on this. What are you keeping an eye on going forward? I’m keeping an-
Andrew Weber [00:08:15] what this appeal will look like from the state, because this is gonna go to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and they’ve ruled on this issue before, heat and incarceration, specifically in Angola and Louisiana, and there was this sort of distinction of, okay, the state agency in Louisiana was able to do something, but even if it wasn’t addressing the overall problem of solving heat mitigation, that the state could argue that, you know, we’re doing something and, you know, we’re not doing nothing.
Jerry Quijano [00:08:49] All right, that is Andrew Weber. He is KUT’s government accountability reporter. We’re gonna have a link to his reporting in today’s show notes. Andrew, thanks for coming back on the show. Yes sir, thank you, Jerry. It has been more than a year since 28 people died at Camp Mystic during torrential flooding of the Hill Country, and as folks continue to look for answers, the staff at the Girl Summer Camp in Kerr County is being investigated for manslaughter and other criminal offenses. This new information comes from 14 search warrants filed last week by the Texas Rangers. And for more about that, we’re talking with Kaylee Hunt, she is KUT’s Williamson County reporter. Kaylee, thanks for being here. Thanks, Jerry. Okay, so first of all, how long have the Texas Rangers been investigating this?
Kailey Hunt [00:09:35] Yeah, so the Rangers began investigating Camp Mystic and this criminal inquiry back in March of this year. And that came after it was revealed that hundreds of complaints had been made against camp in the wake of the July 4th.
Jerry Quijano [00:09:54] So there’s the hundreds of complaints in it. We mentioned those 14 search warrants. What is in those search warants?
Kailey Hunt [00:10:01] Yeah, so first of all, these search warrants basically allow the Texas Rangers to investigate electronic data from the camp’s leadership. There was, as you mentioned, 14 of them. Those included members of the Eastland family, which owns and runs the camp, as well as different staff members of camp, including some senior counselors. And these warrants are really significant because They’ve essentially given us the clearest picture yet of what kinds of possible criminal charges the Rangers are investigating. So in the documents, the Rangers say that they have probable cause to believe the camp’s leaders committed manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, injury to a child, abandoning or endangering a child and deadly conduct.
Jerry Quijano [00:10:51] Yeah, and you started reporting on this story yesterday. You’re telling us a little bit about the search warrants. What else can we glean? What other information can we take from these warrants that were filed by the Texas Rangers?
Kailey Hunt [00:11:01] Yeah. And so, you know, it is important to note that these warrants do not mean that any official charges have been filed against the camp. They’ve not been, the cases, there’s no case yet, hasn’t been presented to a grand jury. But it does signal that the Texas Rangers are still investigating the camp despite it not opening. This summer is it originally intended to when they began investigating back in March of last year. March of this year, sorry, and yeah, it gives us a clear look to be on the lookout for possible charges here in the future.
Jerry Quijano [00:11:38] Is this the only investigation that is looking into finding out more about what happened or are there other legal proceedings that are going on in the mix as well?
Kailey Hunt [00:11:45] No, there’s definitely a lot going on with this event. If you remember earlier this summer, you had a joint legislative committee. They had an independent investigator look at the flooding event, focusing primarily on Camp Mystic. That investigator released their report earlier this year, in fact, it’s actually mentioned in these search warrant affidavits as evidence. And then also remember that more than a dozen families are also suing the camp. And its leaders for negligent behavior leading up to the flood. And so those cases are still ongoing, however, they’ve kind of been put in limbo since the camp declared bankruptcy earlier this year.
Jerry Quijano [00:12:25] Okay, we have been speaking with Kaylee Hunt. She is KUT’s Williamson County reporter. She’s been doing a lot of reporting on the flooding aftermath for us, including a podcast for the Texas newsroom. After the flood, make sure and listen to that. Kaylee, thank you for your time today. Alright, we got a whole lot more coming up your way and got this little blurb here from the KUT Art Beat. Austin Opera is unveiling a new art center this week ahead of the premiere of its bilingual opera Ofrenda. Named after some longtime supporters, the Sarah and Ernest Butler Performance Center in southeast Austin is Austin Opera’s new permanent home. Stephanie Federico, the Art Beat editor here at KUT News has more on our website. And we have plenty more for you to catch up on. It has been a very busy week. If you have been following the show, you can keep up with all that we’re doing at kut.org slash Signal. And on the KUT app, this is Austin Signal. Thank you for tuning in. This is Austin Signal. Thank you for tuning in. We’re coming up on the end of September. That means it’s time to share with you the best songs from this month. And here with more about that is our buddy Ryan Wen. He’s a producer and host over at KUTX. Great to see you again, Ryan.
Ryan Wen [00:13:53] Hey Jerry, thanks for having me again.
Jerry Quijano [00:13:54] Of course, we’re ready to hear what you got to tell us about so let’s just start right off the bat and tell us What’s the new one from rickshaw Billy’s burger patrol?
Ryan Wen [00:14:01] Ah yes, Rickshaw Billy’s Burger Control. They are Austin’s resident doom metal gods of mischief and they are a self-described doom-wop band, but it’s kind of like, they have this hilarious self-awareness to their naming conventions. On their new single, Cash Grab, this silly naming convention might actually be kind of a mask to hide some pretty personal introspective lyrics. And also, this is their most pop-forward. Single to date and I actually think that’s like a really good addition to the doom metal doomgaze Sounds that can sometimes need a little levity. It’s a little too do me for even the doomiest of us
Music [00:14:51] You know it feels so good Need for that beverage that will fill my…
Ryan Wen [00:15:04] But nonetheless, it’s an incredible single, really pulling from some interesting places. In particular, hearing a little bit of Built to Spill in it as well. So there’s like an indie rock sensibility happening while still having their like, you know, trademark kudgeling doom metal riffs and, you now, all the expectations you’d have from Rick Shaw Billy’s Burger and Patrol. But this metamorphosis is like really cool, I think, from them and I am really excited to hear more from them in this direction.
Jerry Quijano [00:15:31] Very cool, it sounds like Built to Spills, they’re kind of a theme a little bit of the songs featured this month, so we’re gonna touch on that in a little. Tell us, the next song is called Pretty Boy Floyd, who’s that from?
Ryan Wen [00:15:42] So, Pretty Boy Floyd is originally done by Woody Guthrie, but famously covered by The Birds in their classic record, The Sweet Heart of the Rodeo, which sometimes considered like the first classic rock album. And Israel Nash is releasing this Friday, a reimagination of Sweet Heart Of The Rodeio, which may or may not ruffle a few feathers because it is a beloved album. And you know, when people cover albums that some consider to be perfect, it’s like, You know, people get upset sometimes.
Jerry Quijano [00:16:10] Of course, people have feelings.
Ryan Wen [00:16:11] Mm-hmm, and you know I’ve been there myself, but you know in hindsight especially with this album You know in 1968 when the birds released sweetheart of the rodeo which by the way only has two original songs on it It upset a lot of people they went to the grand old Opry and they got booed off the stage They were messing with country music in a way that people did not appreciate so you know Israel Nash if there’s anyone that should be reimagining this record it should be him because he’s been you know, pushing the boundaries of Americana for like 10 plus years now, bringing this like really cool, expansive, ambient tint to it.
Gabriel Velasquez Niera [00:16:51] You
Ryan Wen [00:17:10] He really brings that out in this reimagination of it in a way that kind of reminds me of Gene Clark that wasn’t with the birds in 1968, but nonetheless, he seems to be carrying the spirit of Gene Clarke in this one, and I really, really dig it.
Jerry Quijano [00:17:21] Very cool, okay, the next artist on your list is named Bruce, all caps, who is Bruce?
Ryan Wen [00:17:27] Bruce, you may know as Carrie Fussell, who was once the front human of Calliope musicals. She was kind of like Austin’s, you know, Technicolor fairy that spread mischief and whimsy around town. If you ever saw Callipe musical live, they were so much fun. But Bruce is her new project, began a couple years ago with actually the encouragement of the late great John D. Graham, who invited her to be on the stage with him at his Wednesday residencies at the Consonel’s Club. And it’s much more like personal vehicle for Carry Fussel.
Music [00:18:18] I believe I’m a man
Ryan Wen [00:18:21] and it is mostly a solo project and the new single is her first since her debut, Must Love Teeth. It’s like this under toe of like harsh electronic sounds and then Carrie Fussell’s operatic voice soaring above these like electronic tones. And it reminds me at least that Carrie Fustle is a classically trained vocalist and her chops are incredible and highly recommend checking out this one. It’s a really cool direction for her.
Jerry Quijano [00:18:47] Okay, I mentioned there was a bit of a theme of Bill to Spill, and that comes up with this next artist, Stalefish. Who are they and what’s the song?
Ryan Wen [00:18:54] So, Stalefish, they just released the song Big Fan. I only recently heard of them, and they are a six-piece band from Austin. They have been coming up for a couple years now, and they’re bringing an indie rock sound that obviously, as mentioned, is a little influenced by Bilt to Spill, the Doug Marsh school of guitar fuzz and winding guitar riffs, but they’re also bringing in some really, a lot of different kinds of indie rock sounds, switch. You know, at this point, there’s a lot of bands that be called indie rock from bands like, you know, Sebado to the Feelies. It’s like those bands couldn’t be more different. But nonetheless, this band has kind of like a compassed all of these sounds in a way that’s really interesting. And the new single Big Fan, it’s like this, you know, snide social commentary on like the sycophantic kind of things that can happen in music scenes. But it’s done in this, like, vaguely pop-punk, fun, incredibly catchy way. I think they’ve, like reached indie rock self-actualization with this single. It’s, it’s like a really great combination of sounds. They’re the best that do it in Austin a long time.
Jerry Quijano [00:20:22] Alright, so tell us what’s the final song on your list this month.
Ryan Wen [00:20:24] The final song in the list is Stalefish, or not Stale Fish, it’s Star Flake, sorry, there’s a lot of, you know, repetition, but nonetheless, Star Flakes. So Star Flaked is a new project from someone you may recognize, Jackie O’Brien. He’s one of the co-founders of the Bright Light Social Hour. And this is a project for him, they just released their debut LP earlier this month. But it’s like this genre agnostic, creatively liberated project. It goes between so many different sounds, kumbia, psychedelic rock, afrobeats sometimes. But it was a project that in a recent Austin Chronicle interview, he revealed that it was inspired by grief, actually. His brother had passed away, but something his brother had always told him was to stop caring about what other people thought about his art. And you know That led him to kind of pursue this project, which is very open-minded. He found a lot of other open- minded musicians, like musicians from Como Las Movies, some experimental electronic musicians from Austin, and it really shows in this album. It’s like coming from all these different directions.
Music [00:21:31] Take it away. Don’t, don’t,don’t,Don’t, Don’t let go
Ryan Wen [00:21:48] And more than anything, even though it has a lot of different sounds, the common theme in it is just joy. It’s a really fun, danceable album, and you wouldn’t expect where it’s coming from, but he’s really transmuted this part of his life into something that’s very beautiful and freeing and community-oriented. And the single, Don’t Let Go, that I wrote about is like this callback to early aughts Electro Clash, like LCD Sound System. But then there’s like this Kraftwerkian like tropicalia thing going on. It’s like, it’s really interesting. And like, it’s also like really fun and danceable. It’s a weird combination of sounds that just works and Starflake has really achieved something really cool here.
Jerry Quijano [00:22:33] Krafverkian tropicalia. That’s just why I like talking to you, Ryan. You say sentences that have never been said on the radio before. We’ll have more about the best songs from this month in today’s show notes, and thanks to our buddy Ryan Wen from KUTX for keeping us in the groove. Ryan, thank you very much. Thanks, Gary. And thank you out there for spending the day with us. We have more news at kut.org slash signal. Our team is Caroline Fial, Alexandra Hart and Kristin Cabrera. I’m your host, Jerry Kikano. We’ll be back at the same time tomorrow. Talk to you then.
This transcript was transcribed by AI, and lightly edited by a human. Accuracy may vary. This text may be revised in the future.
