Texas man charged with capital murder after wave of daylong violence
AUSTIN, Texas — Texas authorities on Wednesday charged a man with capital murder following a wave of daylong violence across two major cities that left six people dead and two police officers recovering from gunshots, including one who was shot in the leg outside a high school in Austin.
A cyclist in Austin was also shot and wounded in a trail of attacks that began Tuesday morning and ended with the suspect crashing his car that evening during a police pursuit, Austin interim Police Chief Robin Henderson said. In all, four who died were found in two homes in Austin and two others were found in a home more than 80 miles away in the San Antonio area.
Henderson said it was unclear what, if any, relationship the man had to the victims.
Authorities identified the suspect as Shane James, 34. Online jail records in Travis County show he was being held on charges of capital murder and misdemeanors from other counties. The records do not indicate whether James has an attorney and several people listed as relatives of James in public records did not immediately respond to phone messages Wednesday.
“We strongly believe one suspect is responsible for all of the incidents,” Henderson said during a news conference early Wednesday.
Court records show James was previously charged in San Antonio with three misdemeanor counts of allegedly assaulting a member of his family or household. Those charges are awaiting a hearing.
James is a former US Army infantry officer who served from February 2013 to August 2015, according to Lieutenant Colonel
Ruth Castro, Army spokesperson. He had no deployments and his last rank was first lieutenant.
Henderson said authorities did not determine the Austin attacks were connected until the final one at a home, which happened more than eight hours after a school police officer was shot and wounded in a high school parking lot on the other side of the city.
In San Antonio, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said the bodies of two people were found inside a residence after deputies saw water coming out of the home, as though something was leaking inside. He said the deaths appeared to have occurred before the shootings in Austin.
“This occurred, and then the suspect drove to Austin and did what he did there,” Salazar told reporters. In a statement, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said the state would “impose the full weight of law on this criminal for his despicable crimes.”
“Texans grieve for the loved ones of the six Texans who were murdered by a hardened criminal who must never see the light of day again,” Abbott said in the statement.
The attacks were the country’s 42nd mass killings this year, according to a database maintained by the Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.
At least 217 people have died this year in those killings, which are defined as incidents in which four or more people have died within a 24-hour period, not including the killer — the same definition used by the FBI.