North Texas couple sues man who fatally shot their sleeping son through apartment wall

A San Marcos man is being sued by the parents of 20-year-old Austin Salyer, who was fatally shot in his sleep in his apartment in 2021.

Rodney and Bonnie Salyer — of Flower Mound, Texas — are suing Gabriel Nathaniel Brown; Brown’s father, Gregory Keith Brown; and Gabriel Brown’s former girlfriend, Chantel Monique Veal, over their alleged involvement in the wrongful death of Austin.

Austin Salyer, who grew up in Flower Mound, was a student at Texas State University and had just enlisted in the Army in September 2021. He was shot while he was sleeping in the early morning of Sept. 16, 2021, in his off-campus apartment at The Lyndon apartments.

Austin Salyer and Veal lived in units next door to each other. Gabriel Brown killed Salyer when he negligently discharged a firearm inside Veal’s apartment, according to the lawsuit filed May 10 in Bell County District Court.

Gabriel called his father, Gregory, on FaceTime to “show off his semi-automatic pistol and the micro conversion kit,” the lawsuit said. A micro conversion kit is used to turn a semi-automatic pistol into an assault rifle, according to the suit.

While on the call with his father, Gabriel Brown fired his pistol while installing the micro conversion kit, the lawsuit states. He told police it was an accident.

According to the police report, Gabriel Brown told police he saw that the bullet made a hole in the wall but believed that the bullet did not go all the way through and said he messaged Austin Salyer on Snapchat to check if Salyer was OK.

In fact, the round had blasted through the wall and hit Salyer at close range, the lawsuit states. The round went through his arm, chest, and exited through his other arm.

“Austin managed to get himself up out of bed. In what must have been like a terrifying and horrific nightmare, Austin stumbled around his bedroom, injured and bleeding profusely. Austin Salyer managed to exit his bedroom into the kitchen and living room area of his apartment, and finally collapsed on the ground where he succumbed to his injuries. Austin was not discovered until the late morning of September 16, 2021,” the suit said.

“Despite knowing that Austin Salyer lived next door and that a bullet had blasted through the shared wall between the apartments, Defendant Gabriel Nathaniel Brown callously failed to call the police, apartment management, 911, or any other emergency service provider to report the discharge or to ask for anyone to check on his neighbor Austin Salyer,” the lawsuit claims.

Veal also did not call 911 or contact emergency services after the round had been fired. Although Gregory Brown was on a phone call with Gabriel Brown when the round was fired, he also failed to call police.

Gabriel Brown did not turn himself in to the San Marcos Police Department “until much later” at about 12 p.m. that same day, according to police reports and the lawsuit. Austin Salyer’s friends found him dead in his apartment in the morning. When he turned himself in, Gabriel Brown told police he did not commit a crime, but rather an accident.

Rodney and Bonnie Salyer are seeking monetary relief of over $1 million and damages for funeral and burial expenses, pain and suffering experienced due to the death of their only child, and the physical and mental pain Austin Salyer suffered before his death.

“Each of the Defendants cruelly disregarded the massive danger that they inflicted on Austin Salyer, and as a result of being shot at close range by Defendant Gabriel Brown, 20-year-old Austin Salyer died by homicide on September 16, 2021. Defendant Gabriel Nathaniel Brown subsequently pleaded guilty to and was convicted of criminally negligent homicide,” the lawsuit further states.

The maximum sentence for criminally negligent homicide in Texas is two years in a state jail with a fine of up to $10,000. The minimum sentence is supposed to be 180 days, but a judge reduced Gabriel Brown’s sentence to 90 days broken up into nine-day increments over a five-year period, the suit says.

The lawsuit says, “Despite literally killing another human being with a gun and failing to tell any authority about it until well after any chance of saving the life of Austin Salyer remained, Defendant Gabriel Nathaniel Brown received a slap on the wrist from elected officials in Hays County. Austin Salyer’s biological parents, the Plaintiffs, having been wholly deprived of any semblance of reasonable justice by the criminal courts. Plaintiffs now bring this action seeking full and fair compensation for the wrongful death of their son caused by the grossly negligent acts and omissions of all Defendants.”

Gabriel Brown, Gregory Brown, and Veal failed to ensure the firearm was unloaded before handling it in a habitation, failed to obtain training on the safe handling and operation of a firearm, failed to exercise care to avoid risk of injury, and failed to provide aid to Austin after the round was discharged, according to the lawsuit. The suit was filed in Bell County, where the Browns currently live.