Shooting at Arboretum in Austin left two dead. Why didn't police send active shooter alert?

While responding to a shooting that left two people dead and others injured at the Arboretum in Northwest Austin on Thursday, law enforcement agencies didn't use the state's active shooter alert system. In fact, the 2-year-old security measure has never been used in Texas.

Known as the "Leilah Hernandez Act," in honor of the final victim of the 2019 Midland-Odessa shooting, and created by the Legislature in 2021, the Texas Active Shooter Alert program is meant to send an alert to people within a 50 mile radius of an active shooting through cellular devices, local broadcast media, Texas Department of Transportation Dynamic Message Signs and other resources.

The Austin Police Department confirmed Friday that it did not a request an emergency alert to be broadcast during the shooting Thursday, citing the incident's speed and criteria for instituting an alert.

"This is an open and active investigation; however, we can tell you that this incident occurred very quickly," the Austin Police Department told the American-Statesman in a written statement. "Preliminary on scene investigation determined that there was no verification of an active shooter, but an isolated incident."

Instead of the alert system, police said the most reliable source of information during an active shooting is the department's social media accounts.

Law enforcement first received a call reporting the shooting at the Arboretum shopping center at 5 p.m., with additional calls coming in at 5:03 p.m. confirming that several shots had been fired with at least one person hit, interim Police Chief Robin Henderson said at news conference Thursday evening.

By 5:11 p.m., medics began treating victims, one with critical injuries who was taken to a hospital and two who were evaluated for minor injuries. At 5:20 p.m., police pronounced two people dead, including the shooter.

More: Police: 2 dead, including gunman, in shooting at Arboretum; 1 person in critical condition

About a half-hour after the first call reporting the shots, Austin police posted at 5:29 p.m. on X, formerly Twitter, that officers were responding to an "incident" at the outdoor shopping mall and asked that people avoid the area.

Late Friday afternoon, Austin police identified the victims who died as 64-year-old Laura Jauregui but did not name the injured woman. The gunman, who police say carried out the random attack before shooting himself, was identified as 38-year-old Tang-Kang Dave Chiang.

To institute an active shooter alert there is a bit of bureaucratic process that must take place, as law enforcement agencies are required to fill out an online form with serval questions describing the event and additional clerical questions, ranging from the name of the requesting agency to whether the suspect is on foot or in a vehicle.

The alert program, which is operated under the Texas Department of Public Safety, has never issued an emergency notice in response to an active shooter situation.

"Since the Active Shooter Alert became effective, the Department has not received any requests for activation," DPS told the Statesman in a statement Friday.

The DPS said an active shooter is defined by the FBI as "an individual actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area."

"The goal of this program is to save lives and prevent mass violence by notifying the public of nearby active shooter situations and encouraging them to avoid the area or to shelter-in-place," the DPS said in its statement.

Pete Blair, the executive director of the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training at Texas State University, said that while his program is not very familiar with the state's unused response system, it appeared an alert was not sent as the shooter was taken down shortly after the shooting began.

"There is also not a lot of detail about what happened in the shooting available, but it looks like the shooter was killed at the scene," Blair said.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Arboretum shooting: Texas Active Shooter Alert notice never activated