Police: Officers kill man who raised gun at them
Report: Refused repeated orders to drop weapon
A man was shot and killed by police after he refused to drop a gun and instead raised it at officers early Saturday at a Northwest Austin apartment complex, officials said.
No one else was injured, interim Police Chief Robin Henderson said during a news conference Saturday morning.
Henderson said the incident began late Friday when police received calls at 11:34 p.m. and again at 11:42 p.m. about loud noise and music coming from cars on the north side of an apartment complex at 7905 San Felipe Blvd., near U.S. 183 and McNeil Drive.
She said that, at 12:14 a.m., multiple 911 callers reported that a man was walking around the complex with a gun.
Within seconds, she said, multiple callers then reported hearing gunshots and that a man was holding four to five people at gunpoint, and officers were immediately sent to the scene. As police were responding, Henderson said, other callers reported multiple gunshots and seeing people and vehicles leaving.
The first officers arrived at 12:20 a.m. and began to search the area. At 12:34 p.m., the interim chief said, officers found a group of people in the parking lot and identified themselves as police. As they were talking, she said, “a suspect wearing black then stepped out from the breezeway of a building holding a gun.”
“Officers announced to the suspect, ‘Austin police. Show me your hands,’ and repeated the command ‘show me your hands’ in Spanish,” Henderson said. “Officers then repeated additional commands, ‘hands up’ and ‘drop the gun’ several times at the suspect, however the suspect did not comply and raised the gun toward the officers.”
At approximately 12:36 a.m., she said, two officers fired their weapons at the man, striking him.
Henderson said the officers then administered first aid and attempted livesaving measures until Austin-Travis County EMS medics arrived. She said the man was taken to a hospital at 1:11 a.m. and pronounced dead at 1:39 a.m.
The SWAT team was called to the apartment from which the man emerged, Henderson said, but no one else was found.
She said there was no ongoing threat to the public.
The incident was captured by the officers’ body cameras, and video will be released within 10 business days, Henderson said. Per department protocol, the officers who fired their weapons will be placed on administrative duty. One has been with the department for four years, she said, and the other for two years.
Henderson said police will conduct a criminal investigation into the incident with the department’s special investigations unit and the district attorney’s office, along with an administrative investigation conducted by its internal affairs unit along with the city’s Office of Police Oversight.
Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call the special investigations unit at 512-974-6840 or the Capital Area Crime Stoppers at 512-472 8477. Anonymous tips can be given online at AustinCrimeStoppers.org.