Lubbock police say man threatened to shoot from top of parking garage near Texas Tech campus

Alex Driggars, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
·2 min read
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Lubbock police block off Third Street west of University Avenue Sunday evening north of the Texas Tech campus while SWAT worked a scene at the Raider Park garage. Police say a man was threatening to shoot from the top of the parking complex.
Lubbock police block off Third Street west of University Avenue Sunday evening north of the Texas Tech campus while SWAT worked a scene at the Raider Park garage. Police say a man was threatening to shoot from the top of the parking complex.

Lubbock police say a SWAT team responded and a man was arrested after he threatened to shoot at officers and homes from the top of a parking garage near the Texas Tech campus Sunday evening.

The Lubbock Police Department said 23-year-old William Holmes called 911 around 6:20 p.m. Sunday and told dispatchers he was planning to fire at police from atop Raider Park garage in the 2500 block of Marsha Sharp Freeway, prompting police to block off much of the area and the nearby Texas Tech campus to issue a TechAlert! notification for a portion of the evening.

"The caller advised our communications center that he was armed and that when officers arrived, he would begin to shoot at them," LPD Lt. Brady Cross told reporters.

Cross said officers arrived on scene shortly after and set up a perimeter but stayed out of view of the subject for officer safety, believing the subject was armed in an elevated position.

"Several minutes later, he called back to our dispatch center and said that if officers didn't arrive soon, he would begin to shoot at homes and houses in the area," Cross said.

Cross said sometime after the second call, Holmes was able to leave the scene and was later located near his residence in the 1200 block of North Bangor Avenue.

Police have not located a weapon and no injuries were reported in the incident.

Holmes was booked into the Lubbock County Detention Center on terroristic threat charges and unrelated warrants, Cross said.

Texas Tech University issued a TechAlert Sunday night asking the public to avoid the area north of Jones AT&T Stadium, citing a Lubbock Police Department operation. The all-clear was issued around 8:30 p.m.

Avalanche-Journal reporters were near Third Street and University Avenue, where police were stopping westbound traffic on the Marsha Sharp Freeway and Third Street near Raider Park and the surrounding businesses. Police reopened the area to traffic just before 8:30 p.m., though officers remained on scene into the evening.

Reporter Mateo Rosiles contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Lubbock police say man threatened shoot from parking garage near Texas Tech