A 34-year-old man is in custody after a string of homicides and shootings across two Central Texas communities left six people dead and three people injured, including two police officers, authorities said during news conferences in Austin and the San Antonio area.
The suspect, identified by police as Shane James, has been charged in Travis County with multiple counts of capital murder and is expected to remain in custody pending a trial, the Travis County District Attorney’s Office said Wednesday in a statement.
James was booked into the Travis County Jail in Austin on Wednesday at 2:32 a.m. local time, according to jail records. “Based on information obtained over the course of these investigations, we strongly believe that one suspect is responsible for all of these incidents,” Austin Interim Police Chief Robin Henderson said.
On Tuesday, the suspect allegedly carried out shootings at four different locations in Austin before he was arrested.
In the morning, he allegedly shot and injured an Austin Independent School District officer. At about noon, he allegedly fatally shot a man and a woman miles away in South Austin, investigators said.
At about 5 p.m., he allegedly shot and wounded a man on a bicycle, authorities said. And that evening, the suspect allegedly shot and injured an Austin police officer who was responding to a call about a burglary at a home, authorities said.
Two people were found dead at the home, police said. That final shooting set off a car chase that ended with the suspect in custody at 7:15 p.m., authorities said.
Once in custody, the suspect was connected to a home in San Antonio, about 80 miles southwest of Austin, where two bodies were found. The timing of those deaths was not clear, but police believe it took place before the Austin shootings.
The relationship, if any, between the suspect and the victims isn’t known, authorities said. Two high schools in Austin are closed Wednesday as police investigate the shootings in the city, officials said.
As police in Austin investigated the suspect following his arrest, they connected him to an address in Bexar County and contacted authorities there, Sheriff Javier Salazar said during a news conference Tuesday night.
Deputies were sent to check out the home and discovered water leaking from the home so they decided to force their way in, Salazar said. The deputies discovered a “pretty grizzly crime scene” inside with two people dead, the sheriff said.
“Nobody deserves to die the way we believe that they died,” he said, without providing further details on how they were killed. The relationship, if any, between the suspect and the people in the home is unclear, Salazar said.
“This is a very quiet family. The gentleman that lives in the home, he’s very involved in the community, in the neighborhood watch,” Salazar said. Investigators believe the double homicide at the home happened before the incidents in Austin, the sheriff said.
The first shooting in Austin happened around 10:40 a.m., when an Austin Independent School District officer was shot near Northeast Early College High School. The officer was shot in the leg and was stable, Austin Independent School District Police Chief Wayne Sneed said.
The school went on lockdown as another school resource officer assisted the injured officer, Sneed said. It and nearby International High School are closed Wednesday as the investigation continues, district officials said.
A little more than an hour later, Austin Police responded “to multiple calls for help” at a location about 12 miles away from the high school, Austin Police Sgt. Destiny Silva said Tuesday afternoon during a news briefing. “The callers reported hearing gunshots and stated that there was two possible victims,” Silva said.
“Our officers arrived on scene at approximately 12:04 p.m. and located a male and a female victim with obvious signs of trauma to their body.” One victim died there and the other was pronounced dead at the hospital, Silva said.
The third incident in Austin occurred around 4:57 p.m., “when Austin 911 received a call at 5701 West Slaughter Lane” about a male cyclist who said he had been shot. The man suffered non-life-threatening injuries, Henderson, the police chief, said.
About two hours later, a police officer responding to a burglary call in southwest Austin was shot in an exchange of gunfire with a suspect. The officer had non-life-threatening injuries and the suspect wasn’t injured, Henderson said.
The suspect fled the burglary scene in a vehicle, Henderson said, and officers pursued him. The suspect crashed the vehicle around 7:14 p.m. and was arrested, the chief said. He had a firearm on him, Henderson said.
During the pursuit, additional officers who responded to the home for the burglary call checked inside the house and found two people dead inside, said Henderson.
After his arrest, the suspect was taken to the Travis County Jail, Henderson said. Charges related to an outstanding assault and family violence warrant for the suspect are also pending, the chief added.
