AUSTIN (KXAN) — Officers with the Austin Police Department shot and killed a man on Colorado Street who they said shot another man downtown late Sunday night, according to Chief Joseph Chacon in his preliminary briefing of the incident.
An initial 911 call came in just after 11:30 with a person reporting seeing a man with a gun near 5th and Guadalupe Streets. Chacon said officers immediately responded.
“Approximately one min later at 11:34 p.m., a second 911 call came in indicating that multiple gunshots had gone off, and people were running in the 300 block of W. 6th Street – and generally, it was chaos,” said Chief Chacon, adding that at that point – additional officers were assigned to the call.
At 11:36, 911 received an update that a person had been shot. Police found the shooting victim – a man – about two minutes later with non-life-threatening injuries.
“For approximately the next five minutes, officers continued to blanket the area, looking for the individual involved in the shooting,” Chacon said.
At 11:43, Chacon said officers saw a man that matched the description of the shooter.
“[They] began to approach and called out and then officers observed that he was in possession of a gun. They yelled out to one another and began yelling at the man to drop the gun, and the man began to run. One of the officers jumped out of the utility vehicle and began pursing on foot while the other two continued to pursue in the utility vehicle,” said Chacon. “Officers multiple times were giving the direction to the individual to drop the weapon. Within seconds of the foot pursuit beginning, shots were fired. There were multiple officers that discharged their duty firearms at the individual and the individual did go down.”
Chacon said officers immediately began life-saving measures, and the man later died at the hospital.
“During all of these events, I think this is important to stress, that this is the downtown entertainment district, there were people everywhere. Many on foot, vehicles in the area as well. And generally this was a very, very active area of town despite the late hour,” said Chacon.
The three officers who fired shots have been placed on administrative leave, which is department protocol. Also per APD protocol, the officers’ body camera will be released within 10 business days.
This is a developing story. Check back with KXAN for updates.
