After a long night of shooting and killing, police in Texas have a suspect in custody. Six victims are dead and three others were left injured. The string of separate attacks happened on Tuesday, in Austin. The shooter has also been linked to a pair of deaths in San Antonio.
Suspect not identified
For now, nobody is naming the suspect “believed to be responsible for a string of shootings in Austin and connected to two deaths in a residence east of San Antonio.”
Police held a news conference to inform the public on Tuesday evening, December 5.
The department explains that they believe the community is safe for now because they have a suspect behind bars charged with capital murder. That means he might get the death penalty.
A suspect is in custody after six people were killed and three were injured in homicides and shootings around Texas, officials say.
The killings took place over the course of eight hours in multiple locations.
Here's where the suspect went: https://t.co/qhV0CveH7b
— NBC News (@NBCNews) December 6, 2023
The spokesperson noted that they’re still thinking of charging him with a few other things but they need to wait to hear back from prosecutors on that first.
“We strongly believe one suspect is responsible for all of the incidents,” Austin’s interim police chief Robin Henderson relates.
Police “did not determine that these incidents were connected until the last incident occurred.” The crime spree apparently started Tuesday morning.
High school parking lot
The first shooting happened at around 10:45 a.m. in Austin. That’s when “law enforcement responded to an Austin Independent School District police officer who was shot and injured in a parking lot at Northeast Early College High School.”
The next attack happened just before noon but they didn’t know it was the same suspect. “Officers then responded to a second incident after receiving multiple calls for help at a home in Austin where gunshots were heard. One person was pronounced dead at the scene and the second person died later at the hospital.”
The third event “occurred just before 5 p.m., after a male cyclist was shot.” That victim was lucky, “only sustaining non-life threatening injuries.”
A man suspected of killing multiple people in a string of shootings across Austin, Texas, on Tuesday was taken into custody and charged with capital murder and other charges, the police said.https://t.co/0BxyYHFapP
— The New York Times (@nytimes) December 6, 2023
The final incident, which tied all the crimes together, “occurred just before 7 p.m., when police responded to an ongoing burglary in Austin, which resulted in arresting the suspect.” That wasn’t an easy thing to accomplish.
“After he opened fire on officers and fled in a vehicle, officers discovered that two apparent victims of the suspect were left dead in the residence.”
According to Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar, his crew got a call from Austin informing them that the guy in their holding cell “is believed to be connected to a double homicide that occurred at a residence east of San Antonio.” Nobody will say “how the victims died” and it’s “unclear whether the suspect was connected to any of the victims.“
