Austin sees 3 killed in latest mass shooting
AUSTIN — Three people were shot to death Sunday in an apparent domestic dispute that rattled the Texas capital and a nation already on edge, coming amid a string of mass shootings across the country.
Just before 5 p.m., authorities lifted a shelter-in-place warning for the city’s northwest suburbs, an area that has seen enormous growth in recent years as part of a booming tech scene. Interim Austin Police Chief Joseph Chacon said officers had shifted to a fugitive search, and he warned residents to stay vigilant.
“We do not think this individual is out there targeting random people to shoot them,” Chacon said. “That does not mean he is not dangerous. We do think that he is armed and he is very much dangerous.”
Authorities identified the suspect as Stephen Broderick, 41. Chacon said Broderick was believed to be a former Travis County sheriff ’s deputy.
The victims were two Hispanic women and a
Black man who were known to Broderick, Chacon said, but he did not give details of their relationship to Broderick or each other. He said a child also had been identified and was safe with authorities.
“Obviously, this is a tragedy,” Chacon told reporters at a briefing near the site of the shootings. “We have people who have lost their lives out here. We’re going to be doing our very best to conduct the best investigation we can, and also to get this person into custody as quickly as possible.”
A former property crimes investigator at the sheriff’s office with the same name as the suspect was arrested last year and charged with felony sexual assault of a 16-year-old girl, according to the Austin American-statesman.
The killings came amid an unnerving string of deadly gun violence across the country in recent weeks. Authorities in Indianapolis still were working to piece together why a 19year-old man stormed a Fedex facility there late Thursday, killing eight people.
Earlier this month, four people were shot to death in the Dallas suburb of Allen, and 18 people were killed last month in shootings at a Colorado grocery story and spas in Atlanta. On Sunday, three people were killed and two were seriously wounded in a shooting at a busy tavern in Wisconsin.
Chris Combs, an FBI special agent in Austin, said the three deaths there occurred during a domestic disturbance and that “at this time, we do not see any federal nexus to this.”
Emergency responders first were called to the scene shortly before noon after receiving a 911 call, Chacon said.
Josh Katzowitz, who had been shopping at the nearby Trader Joe’s, told the Associated Press that police and ambulances came “pouring in” to the area as he was leaving. He said he did not hear any shooting.
“The cops had their guns out,” he said. “Some had pistols, some had rifles and they were strapping on bulletproof vests. There were all of a sudden ambulances, sirens and police cars. There were cops coming from everywhere.”
Local and federal law enforcement spent much of the day searching the Great Hills Trail and Rain Creek Parkway area in northwest Austin where the killings took place.
Local police and federal agents were on the scene throughout the afternoon, with dozens of emergency and tactical vehicles stationed near an apartment complex where the shootings were believed to have taken place. The area includes a strip mall containing several retail stores, along with large apartment complexes near wooded, rolling hills.