A Texas man has been arrested after a shooting spree on Tuesday left six people dead and three others wounded in Austin and Bexar County, including two police officers.
Austin Police have not named the suspect, but KXAN reported he is 34-year-old Shane James. A person by that name was booked into the Travis County jail early Wednesday morning for capital murder of multiple people.
The Austin shootings began just after 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday when a school district officer was shot near Northeast Early College High School. That was followed just before noon by a double homicide on Shadywood Drive. Just before 5 p.m., a cyclist reported being shot as they rode along West Slaughter Lane.
Then, police responded to a burglary call on Austral Loop at about just before 7 p.m. and found the suspect in the backyard of the home. The suspect shot the officer and fled in a vehicle. Other officers gave chase, and the pursuit ended when the suspect crashed at about 7:15. Officers found the bodies of two more victims inside the Austral Loop home.
Both officers and the cyclist who were shot suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
Interim Austin Police Chief Robin Henderson said the school officer was responsible for several campuses in the area and was on his rounds when he reported taking fire from an unknown person and that he had been hit in the leg.
After the cyclist shooting, police responded to Shadywood Drive, where they found a man and a woman with “obvious signs of trauma to their body,” according to Austin Police Sgt. Destiny Silva.
Henderson said that the suspect fired at the officer responding to the burglary call and that the officer fired back but did not hit the suspect. The officer called in that he had been shot multiple times and that the suspect got away.
Meanwhile, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said the suspect in the Austin shootings could be tied to a double murder near San Antonio. Salazar said Austin police contacted his officer to ask about an address in Bexar County that was linked to the suspect. Officers arrived at the home and found two bodies inside.
“It’s a pretty grisly crime scene in there,” Salazar said.
Salazar said the victims were believed to be in their 50s and did not describe the relationship between the suspect and the victims.
Austin is about 85 mil
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[Featured image: KXAN screenshot]
