Austin, June 11 (RHC)-- In Austin, Texas, Black Lives Matter activists are demanding the arrest of officers who sent two young people to the hospital with head trauma at recent protests. 

On May 31, police shot 20-year-old Texas State University student Justin Howell in the head with a lead-pellet bag fired by an officer’s shotgun.  After he fell unconscious to the pavement, he was picked up by fellow protesters who tried to rush him past a police line for medical attention.  The police then opened fire with another barrage. 

Justin Powell was hospitalized in critical condition with a fractured skull and brain damage. 

A day earlier, another Austin officer shot 16-year-old Brad Levi Ayala in the head with a bean bag round as the teen stood passively on a hillside near a line of riot police.  Ayala’s family says he is undergoing neurological testing at an Austin hospital and faces a long road to recovery.