Police and organizers of Juneteenth events in two cities went out of their way Thursday to insist that attacks against drivers — one of which left an Austin, Texas, man dead — have nothing to do with the crowds attending the celebrations.
But in both cases, electronic evidence raises questions about how the crimes were being characterized by officials. In Austin, a woman who called 911 on Tuesday night to report the brutal beating of David Rivas Morales, a 40-year-old man attacked by a crowd in a housing complex parking lot, said she struggled to the police dispatcher to understand her location, and described the scene as a gang fight involving people celebrating Juneteenth at a nearby park, according to audio files released Thursday by the city.