Reported incident
On July 31, 2019, Austin police responded to the Spring Condominiums in downtown Austin after multiple 911 calls reported that Dr. Mauris DeSilva was experiencing a mental health crisis and holding a knife to his own throat. Trial coverage later described surveillance and body-camera footage showing officers entering the building, checking surveillance video, and taking an elevator to the fifth floor, where DeSilva was seen near the elevator area with a knife. FOX 7 Austin reported that testimony and video placed DeSilva at the elevator area and showed officers shouting commands before Taylor and Officer Karl Krycia fired their guns while Officer Joseph Cast deployed a Taser.
Reporting from the trial described Taylor as firing five rounds when officers came face-to-face with DeSilva in a close-quarters elevator encounter. CBS Austin reported that Cast testified officers encountered DeSilva after the elevator doors opened and that Taylor and another officer discharged their firearms while Cast used his Taser. DeSilva died after the police shooting.
Charges
In August 2021, a Travis County grand jury indicted Austin police officers Christopher Taylor and Karl Krycia in connection with DeSilva’s death. FOX 7 Austin reported that both officers were charged with first-degree murder and third-degree felony deadly conduct. Taylor’s case later proceeded to trial on deadly conduct rather than murder.
Krycia’s criminal case ultimately took a different path. FOX 7 Austin reported in November 2025 that the Travis County District Attorney’s Office conditionally dismissed the case against Krycia as part of an agreement requiring him to provide ICAT de-escalation training.
Conviction and sentencing
In October 2024, a Travis County jury convicted Taylor of deadly conduct in the fatal shooting of DeSilva. FOX 7 Austin reported that Taylor was found guilty after the deadly conduct trial. He was later sentenced to two years in prison.
The conviction was significant because Taylor was reported as the first Austin police officer in the department’s modern history to be convicted for an on-duty police shooting. The Texas Tribune reported that Taylor was sentenced to two years in prison but remained free on bond while his appeal was pending.
Appeal and acquittal
On December 30, 2025, the Seventh Court of Appeals reversed Taylor’s conviction and rendered a judgment of acquittal. The appellate opinion stated that Taylor had been found guilty of deadly conduct by discharging a firearm, but that the court reversed and acquitted him after concluding the evidence was legally insufficient to disprove his self-defense and defense-of-others claims.
The appeals court focused on the elevator encounter, writing that the body-camera footage showed officers confined inside the elevator as DeSilva turned toward them with the knife and advanced in close quarters. The court concluded that the record established justification at the moment Taylor fired. The court’s final disposition was to reverse the trial court judgment and render an acquittal.
The Travis County District Attorney’s Office later challenged that appellate outcome. CBS Austin reported in March 2026 that prosecutors filed a petition for discretionary review in connection with Taylor’s acquittal.
Lawsuits and employment status
DeSilva’s family pursued civil claims. The City of Austin’s Office of Police Oversight lists a lawsuit by Athige DeSilva against the City of Austin and Austin Police Department officers Christopher Taylor and Karl Krycia for the alleged wrongful death of Dr. Mauris DeSilva, with the plaintiff seeking compensatory and punitive damages and the defendants responding with a request to dismiss.
Taylor was fired after the conviction, but his employment status became the subject of later litigation after the appellate acquittal. KUT reported in June 2026 that Taylor sued to get his Austin police job back after the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement reinstated his peace officer license.
Official statements and defense position
After the appellate ruling, the Austin Police Department told FOX 7 Austin that it was aware of the decision overturning Taylor’s conviction and acquitting him, and that the department would review the decision with the City Attorney’s Office. Taylor’s attorney and the Austin Police Association publicly framed the appellate ruling as an exoneration and argued that Taylor acted in lawful defense of himself and other officers.
Allegations, reports, and uncorroborated claims
The criminal allegations were that Taylor unlawfully fired during the July 31, 2019 encounter. The trial resulted in a deadly conduct conviction, but that conviction was later reversed with a judgment of acquittal. Reports cited above describe the incident through trial testimony, body-camera evidence, appellate findings, and official or on-the-record statements. This story does not rely on uncorroborated claims.
Editorial note: A mental health emergency inside a downtown condo became a fatal police shooting, then a landmark prosecution, then an appellate acquittal. Whatever one thinks of the final legal result, the case remains a stark example of how quickly a call for help can become a deadly confrontation when armed police are the primary response to a person in crisis.
