Austin officers fatally shoot man Sunday night during downtown gun incident
A man suspected of shooting someone downtown Sunday night died at a hospital early Monday after Austin police shot him during a foot chase on West Sixth Street, a busy entertainment district, officials said.
The officers shot the man while he was fleeing an earlier shooting in the 300 block of West Sixth Street, Austin Police Chief Joseph Chacon said during an early Monday news conference. Police have not publicly released the man's identity.
"It's important to stress this is the downtown entertainment district," Chacon said. "People were everywhere. Many on foot, vehicles in the area as well, and generally, this was a very, very active area in town."
Chacon said police were initially called to the intersection of Fifth and Guadalupe streets at 11:33 p.m. Sunday for reports of shots fired. At 11:34 p.m., 911 operators received another call reporting multiple gunshots and people running in the 300 block of West Sixth Street, he said.
Officers arrived to the scene at 11:35 p.m., and three minutes later found a man who had been shot and had a non-life-threatening injury, Chacon said. The man could speak with officers, Chacon said.
At 11:43 p.m., officers driving in a utility vehicle found a man who matched the suspected shooter's description at Sixth and Guadalupe streets. Officers approached the man and called out to him, Chacon said. The man had a gun and officers told him multiple times to drop it, Chacon said.
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The man, however, started running and one officer chased him on foot, while other officers followed him in their vehicle, Chacon said.
Within seconds of the chase, three officers opened fired, shooting the man near Sixth and Colorado streets, about two blocks east of where he was first spotted by police, officials said. The officers started emergency care on the man until Austin-Travis County EMS arrived, he said.
The man was taken to a hospital and was pronounced dead at 12:38 a.m., Chacon said.
No one else was injured in the incident, he said.
All three officers who shot at the man will be placed on administrative duty, pending criminal and administrative investigations, which is standard practice after an officer-involved shooting, Chacon said. Officials have not publicly identified the officers.
"It's another tragic incident of gun violence in our city," Chacon said. "This incident is really emblematic of the problem that we are seeing with guns that are being used, that are appearing in disturbances, not just here in the downtown area but all over the city."
All three officers were wearing body cameras, which captured audio and video of the incident, he said. Police will release the video within 10 business days, he said.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Man shot, killed while fleeing Austin police officers downtown
