Cedar Park police standoff
Three Cedar Park police officers are recovering from gunshot wounds they received over the weekend. Interim Cedar Park Police Chief Mike Harmon says the three officers were responding to an emergency call from a house near Leander High School. The suspect’s mother told police her son kicked down a door and was acting aggressive. When officers entered the home, they were shot.
“The officers that were shot are fine. They’ve received medical attention. They don’t have life threatening wounds, and that’s important to know that and to understand that,” says Harmon.
As of this hour, the suspect has surrendered to police and released the hostages.
Police budget cut response
Looking to capitalize on some of the momentum created by the Austin City Council, the family of Javier Ambler is demanding Williamson County defund the sheriff’s office. Ambler died more than a year ago after a police chase that ended in North Austin. The family is also calling for the resignation of Sheriff Robert Chody.
Austin Mayor Steve Adler is trying to focus on what positives he says may come from slashing $150 million on the police budget. He says there will be an immediate reinvestment of $21.5 million dollars, and that’ll be put toward things like family, violent shelters and prevention programs.
“Wouldn’t it be better if we could pull those people out of those homes before they end up getting hurt, becoming your crime statistic?” says Adler.
That money will also address homelessness and mental health. That $21.5million dollars come from the elimination of three cadet glasses and unfilled positions, as well as police overtime.
COVID-19 update
On the coronavirus front, Travis County has seen a pretty good drop in terms of hospitalizations over the weekend. There are 30 fewer people in the hospital today than there were Friday morning. The number of people on a ventilator or in the ICU have also dropped well below 100. There are 24,144 cases confirmed in total, and 22,821 of those are recoveries.
Williamson County adds another 100 coronavirus recoveries over the weekend. Now up to 5,896. Overall, 73 people are in the hospital; that’s unchanged from Friday. Since March, there have been 7,330 confirmed cases. 1,434 of those are still considered to be active.
Businesses reopening with caution
Austin Public Health’s recent relaxation of some of the restrictions on boat rentals, golf courses and tennis courts really has come as unexpected news to a lot of people. Miller Dickson with the Caswell Tennis Center tells CBS Austin he’s doing all he can to make sure that they don’t get shut down once again.
“That’s our main goal is to maintain a safe environment that we can stay open throughout the year.” says Dickson.
The city gave the green light to begin the limited reopenings as of Saturday because the number of new cases has continued to drop. Austin Public Health will also consider more parks for reopening as the virus levels fall even more.
Even though some of the restrictions on businesses have been lifted, Austin and Travis County have extended their stay-at-home orders through December. The order also extends the requirement to wear a mask in public and to limit gatherings to only 10. It also details the plan for phased-in school reopenings within the Austin city limits.
Leander school district technical glitch
After getting off to a rocky start last week, the Leander school district will see all grade levels back in the virtual classroom today. All classes were set to begin last Thursday for all grade levels but a technical glitch with a web filtering tool allowed that to only happen for elementary and middle schools. High schoolers were not able to attend class but the district has added the extra minutes to each school day. There may not be any need for any makeup days because of those extra minutes.
This news and more on News Radio KLBJ:
https://omny.fm/shows/klbjam-flash-briefing-1/am-newscast-8-17-20
