The Austin Police Department has recommended that the 17-year-old suspect in the May string of shootings across Austin be charged with terrorism, a first-degree felony.
An affidavit filed Monday in Travis County's 331st Criminal District Court said police believe Cristian Fajardo Mondragon's actions were intended to intimidate people and hinder government operations.
"These actions created a substantial risk of death and serious bodily injury to members of the public and were [reasonably] calculated to generate widespread fear, alarm, and disruption within the community," the affidavit said.
There were a total of 13 shootings over the course of May 16 and 17 — 12 were initially reported by APD before the Buda Police Department announced an additional shooting was connected. The suspects stole multiple vehicles, shot about 149 rounds across the crime scenes, injured five people and prompted shelter-in-place orders as police worked to arrest them, the affidavit said.
Four people were shot and one was hit by glass shards from a windshield while she was sitting in her car.
After a car chase, Mondragon and two other suspects, a 15-year-old and a 16-year-old, were taken into custody on May 17. The names and case information for the others, who are juveniles under Texas law, have not been released by APD.
Police said in May that the shootings appeared to be a mix of targeted and random incidents.
Suspects shot at two Austin Fire Department stations, causing damage to the buildings and vehicles and leaving them out of service for several hours.
"This is believed to have maximized public fear and disrupted emergency responses to the public," the affidavit said.
Mondragon faces numerous other charges related to the shootings, including theft of a firearm, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and deadly conduct, according to court records.
As part of the string of crimes, police said the suspects stole a gun from Central Texas Gun Works. The affidavit said Mondragon previously stole a gun from the same store in December.
Mondragon has been denied bond. APD said he is in custody in Del Valle.
The Travis County District Attorney's Office declined to comment on the case. Charles Davus Arnone, Mondragon's court-appointed attorney, also declined to comment.
A hearing for Mondragon is set for July 24.
Why did the Austin Police Department pursue a terrorism charge?
The terrorism penal statute in Texas is fairly new, becoming law in September 2023. The law is twofold: A person needs to commit a violent crime, and they need to have had the intent to "intimidate or coerce" the public.
For the terrorism charge to stick, the district attorney's office would need to prove the intent to create widespread fear in the community, according to Geoffrey Corn, the chair of criminal law at Texas Tech University School of Law. Proving intent could come from direct evidence or circumstantial evidence, he said.
Without direct evidence, like text messages, the prosecutors would need to rely on circumstantial evidence to convince the jury, Corn said. The pattern, proximity and "indiscriminate nature of the shootings" could all support the terrorism charge, he said.
Corn also believes that APD pursued the charge in coordination with the district attorney's office.
"The gravity of this offense, this range of offenses, the seriousness, the attention with the public, I would be shocked if the police pursued this arrest warrant without any coordination with the DA's office," he said in a Zoom interview with KUT News. "It's two hands of the same body."
Mondragon already faces years in prison. Corn said adding the terrorism charge could be for symbolic reasons and to increase the possible amount of time spent in prison. The added charge could also create more leverage for a plea deal, he said.
"You've added a terrorism offense to the criminal statute, and the police and the prosecutors might look at it and say, 'Hey, if we don't use it for this, what do we have it for?'" he said. "We're making a point that we are going to leverage the power of this crime when we think it's appropriate."
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