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One man is dead and two Austin police officers are on paid administrative leave following an early morning shooting on Tuesday in southeast Austin.
According to police, the incident began with an attempted traffic stop late Monday night. The driver of a car managed to flee from police, but he was later found crashed in a field off of the 7500 block of William Cannon Drive.
When the car was later found in the field, the driver had a loaded gun pointed at his own head, according to Chief Brian Manley. The responding officer can reportedly be seen on body camera and his in-car camera trying to talk the man into dropping the gun and surrendering.
“Talking with this individual to de-escalate, to calm the situation, to tell the subject to put the weapon down and that things didn’t have to end this way,” Manley said. “There was a lot of work that went into de-escalating the situation.”
By that time, a second officer has arrived on the scene and the man continued to hold himself at gunpoint.
Around 1:40, Manley says the man got up and raised both arms over his head as though he had a weapon, prompting both officers to open fire. A weapon was later recovered near the car.
The man was rushed to the hospital in critical condition and he later died of his injuries. He has not been identified as of 8:00 a.m., although Manley says he is a 27-year-old Hispanic man.
No officers were hurt.
The officers have each been with APD for less than two years. Both reportedly graduated from the academy at the same time. Each is currently on paid administrative leave,.
