Lawrence Parrish, man shot by Austin police officers in 2017, dies

AUSTIN, Texas - Lawrence Parrish, the man at the center of a 2019 excessive force lawsuit against the Austin Police Department, has died.

Parrish passed away on Sept. 10 at the age of 36, according to his obituary.

In April 2017, Parrish was shot by Austin police officers in East Austin after a 911 caller reported a disturbance involving a man with a gun and said he seemed to be under the influence of narcotics. Parrish allegedly opened his front door holding a rifle and according to an arrest affidavit at the time, an officer saw him raise the rifle toward them, and then officers fired at him.

Man shot by Austin police officers speaks out after filing lawsuit

Lawrence Parrish is speaking to FOX 7 Austin for the first time, since he was shot by Austin police officers in April 2017. He described his injuries in the interview.

Originally APD reported they believed Parrish had fired his rifle at the officers, but the investigation later showed he did not.

Parrish was arrested and charged with aggravated assault on a peace officer, but prosecutors later dropped the charge "because apparently they didn't have enough to make that case," said Robert Ranco with the DC Law Firm in 2019.

Parrish sat down with FOX 7 Austin in September 2019, describing his injuries from the shooting. "This finger was actually shot off. I had a bullet by my heart and a bullet by my lungs," he said at the time.

Lawrence Parrish lawsuit

A man shot by APD at least seven times is filing a lawsuit against the City of Austin.

Parrish filed an excessive force lawsuit earlier that year and had been released from jail that summer.

"It's terrifying to know like, you don't even have any type of rights," Parrish said at the time about the lawsuit. "My motivation is to get justice on just the overdoing of that way they treat us, the way they treated me."

A balloon release was held in Parrish's honor at Givens Park on Sunday, Sept. 25.

Austin Crime and Public Safety