News about Kirk Watson

Elizabeth Illing (pictured) had first moved to the Casata micro-home community in South Austin as a way to live a more affordable lifestyle. Since moving into the area in February 2022 and had been paying $1,340 for rent that included utilities at a rate of $150, we were a little late. Now, Illing faces having to pay $1,700 after her rent was increased, implying that she and her daughter may risk being made homeless.

Christopher Taylor, an unarmed Black and Hispanic man, was charged with Michael Ramos, a deadly shooting in 2020. After five days of deliberations, a jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict. Taylor fired Ramos three times as he tried to escape, according to a body camera video.

Four people were shot and killed, including an Austin police SWAT officer, after a violent morning firefight in which police broke a house to try to rescue two wounded victims who had been held hostage by a gunman who fired at the officers. Officer Jorge Pastore is the first Austin officer to fire in the line of duty in a decade. At Dell Seton Medical Center, another SWAT officer, who also shot, was in stable health. The SWAT agents had broken into the house in South Austin and exchanged bullets with the barricaded gunman, who had died. The two people were discovered dead inside the house.

As a homeless encampment continues to expand, a shocking video shows the scene in an Austin park swarming with garbage, including needles, Narcan, and garbage, as the eye can see.' On Monday, activist Jamie Hammonds, who reports from Texas's capital on the X page @DocumentationATX, posted videos of the West Bouldin Creek Greenbelt. 'Another Greenbelt was destroyed here in Austin,' Hammonds said, 'this is absolutely terrible,' Hammonds said, adding that the encampment was at least the size of a football field, and you could smell it "right away before you enter the greenbelt.'

After a shocking video showed its 'crown jewel' hiking trial was littered with needles and human waste, a Texas-based filmmaker and activist is highlighting the growing homeless crisis in Austin. In a video shared on Twitter by Jamie Hammonds on Tuesday, garbage can be seen strewn along the Violet Crown Trail in the state capital's capital. It's been destroyed.' Hammonds said in his tweet, it would never be the same. The 'environmental harm caused by these camps is enormous,' a local resident said.'