Austin police identify young mother, man killed in South Austin shooting rampage

Police identified the man and the woman who were fatally shot in South Austin — the latter while pushing her baby in a stroller — as part of a double homicide believed to be connected to the multicounty fatal shootings that took place Tuesday.

Sabrina Rahman, 24, was found with Emmanuel Pop Ba, 32, in the 7300 block of Shadywood Drive at about noon Tuesday after police received multiple calls about shots being fired. Austin police found both of them with gunshot wounds and said in a press release sent Wednesday that Rahman was taken to the hospital, where she died. Pop Ba was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police arrested Shane James Jr. on suspicion of killing Rahman and Pop Ba, along with a string of other shootings and killings Tuesday in Austin and the San Antonio area.

Marshall Hussain, the uncle of Rahman, told the American-Statesman that his niece was 24 years old. She had moved into her family’s new home with her husband and their 12-month-old child only the day before.

“She was so excited. She took the baby for a stroller walk,” Hussain said.

Neighbors say they called the police at 11:59 a.m. after hearing gunshots in the neighborhood. Rahman was walking with her baby in a stroller at the time.

Pop Ba's family said he worked as a handyman and was helping Hussain's family members move into a house Tuesday.

Pop Ba was getting into his car for lunch when the shooter approached, said Hussain, who noted that Pop Ba was a close friend whom he often employed.

Hussain speculated that Rahman, who was walking with her baby in a stroller, saw the gunman shoot their friend and ran to hide the baby.

“She did her last act to push the child away,” he said.

Hussain said a neighbor found the baby and stroller and started walking up the street, trying to figure out who the baby’s parents were. Rahman's parents, who were inside the home, saw the ambulance taking away Rahman's body but did not realize it was her until they saw the stroller and recognized it.

Hussain said the death is “unimaginable.” Rahman moved to the neighborhood because the family felt it was safer than their last Austin neighborhood, Hussain said.

He described her as a woman who would never tell you that she didn’t like food you had cooked, a woman who never raised her voice.

“She’s just such a gentle woman,” he said. “The child’s going to lose a mother like that.”

Pop Ba leaves behind a wife and three young children. The family immigrated from La Libertad, Guatemala, five years ago, seeking asylum.

“We came here asking for refuge in this country,” Pop Ba’s sister-in-law Filomena Caal Pop said in Spanish. “But these times have changed so much. People have lost the humanity in their hearts. Can you imagine doing this to a working man, a man who didn’t make trouble with anyone?

“What we need in this moment is help," she added. "To make sure there is justice for what has just happened to our family.”

Pop Ba's wife, Domitilia Caal Pop, described him as a doting father who “tried every way possible to spend time with his children.”

He was in charge of waking them up and getting them ready to go to school, she said. On many days, he drove them to class each morning before his 7:30 a.m. start to the workday.

Then, Domitilia said, he’d rush home after work each day. The family waited to eat with him, and he was unwilling to keep them waiting.

He was also the family’s principal breadwinner. Until very recently, when Domitilia got a job at a restaurant kitchen, she had stayed home to take care of their youngest daughter.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” she said. “He was the one who supported us.”

His income, she said, “paid all the rent, paid all the bills."

In the hours after the deaths, other residents of Shadywood Drive processed the shocking events.

Carlos Ramos and his wife work from their home on Shadywood Drive. He was home at 11:59 a.m. Tuesday when gunshots broke out across the street. On Wednesday morning in the wake of the shootings, Ramos was installing a Ring camera on his front door.

“We were just putting it off. We were like, ‘We’ll get one, we’ll get one,’ but now it’s like …” Ramos trailed off, cursing under his breath. “I ordered it last night — it came this morning.”

After the shootings, Ramos saw the victims’ bodies. Multiple neighbors said the shootings occurred outside just a few doors away from each other.

Police taped off the area, and Rahman's family waited on a wooden bench on Ramos’ front porch before another family member came to pick them up. The family had moved into their newly renovated house just three days ago, neighbors said.

“It was heavy, for real,” Ramos said. “It really shakes you. It feels like a personal violation, even though it didn't affect me personally … you have that emotional toll.”

Brad Searle, a resident of Shadywood Drive since 2009, lived a few doors down from where the shootings occurred. He exited his house after the shots were fired and saw a man, whom he believed was the suspect, drive away.

Searle and another neighbor called 911 and walked to the scene, where they saw Pop Ba's and Rahman's bodies farther down. Searle said neighbors gathered around the victims to perform CPR, later asking for police officers' help.

Searle said the experience was numbing and shocking. The only incident of crime he’d heard in the neighborhood since 2009 was of a scooter being stolen.

This story is developing. Check back for updates.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Austin police ID young mom, man killed in shooting on Shadywood Drive