SWAT standoff at Children’s Medical Group
An hours long SWAT standoff has come to an end. With the discovery of two dead bodies inside of the Children’s Medical Group Building on 35th Street, Austin Police Corporal John Madejski says it all began about 4:30 yesterday afternoon.
“It was a 911 call that came into patrol first and patrol showed up on scene. And then, of course, that’s when they called out the SWAT team,” says Madejski.
Reports said a person was being held hostage, and when police arrived, the gunman barricaded himself inside. A robot was sent in about 11 o’clock last night, and that’s when the bodies were found. No other information is known. The investigation is ongoing.
Pushback against police indictment
Also in the news, pushback is growing against the new Travis County district attorney’s indictment of a pair of Austin cops over a two year old use of force case. Kevin Lawrence, with the Texas Municipal Police Association, says the nonfatal actions used by officers Greg Gentry and Chance Bretches is just part of the job.
“Everybody else that has looked at it over the last two years, has said there was no criminal offense. The officers did what officers have to do to overcome resistance, so we feel like it’s a political stunt,” says Bretches.
Lawrence says the Travis County DA Jose Garza’s actions against these officers will lead to them losing their jobs and is effectively telling other cops not to act when called upon.
Petition for strong mayor system
The city clerk has validated a petition submitted to move the Austin City Council away from its reliance on a city manager and shift to what’s known as a strong mayor system. Jim Wick is with the group Austinites for Progressive Reform.
“The council would be the legislative body. They would be passing ordinances and the mayor would be the executive who would be responsible for the day to day operations of the city. He would also possess a legislative veto,” says Wick,
The council now has to vote to call an election for this issue. The group is also pushing for the use of what are known as democracy dollars and that uses taxpayer money to give $25 to every voter who can then donate to his or her candidate of choice.
COVID-19 update
Travis County continues to see more promising numbers. 572 people are in the hospital today, and that number has been heading down in recent days, although 162 people are in the ICU, and that’s five more than a day ago. But the county has also surpassed another recovery milestone, topping 60,000 this week. Since March, 66,209 cases have been found, resulting in 60,116 recoveries.
Available hospital bed space has risen for another day in Williamson County. Nearly 20% of beds are now available. Same has been seen in the ICU where several more beds have been freed up in the past day. Right now, there are 1,659 active cases of COVID out of 30,038 confirmed in the past year. 28,088 of those are people who have recovered.
Austin’s alternate care side has seen a few dozen COVID patients that local hospitals needed taken off their hands and now local health officials are thinking that even as our case numbers are going down, that may be taking in more cases from outside of the area.
“The two particular areas where we may see patients or desire some patients from would be Waco and College Station,” says Mark Escott with the Travis County Health Authority.
He says Austin could help, but only if the state in the city can figure out a way to pay for it.
Governor Greg Abbott addresses the ongoing vaccine shortage across the state, and he is still confident the number of vaccinations will climb sharply in the coming weeks. But he says pressure has to be kept up on the feds to do their part.
“We’re asking the federal government for more vaccines. I’ve heard that Texas is not receiving its sufficient per capita allotment,” says Abbott.
One shot vaccine
Abbott says the one shot vaccine from Johnson & Johnson should be available in a couple of weeks, and that should increase the state supply. Joe Biden, meantime, believes the White House can get at least 100 million people vaccinated within his first 100 days in office.
That one shot COVID vaccine is not in public use yet so second doses are needed for people who’ve already gotten a shot. City leaders, though, like council member Alison Alter, say people getting vaccines through Austin Public Health they’re not getting all the information that they need.
“What we’re hearing is that people at the vaccination centers that are helping can’t answer the questions about what they do for the second dose once they’ve gotten their first dose and they’re there,” says Alter.
Austin Public Health says scheduling for the second dose has not begun yet, but officials say those who need one will be contacted when the time comes.
APH hiring
Austin Public Health is looking to add some temporary employees to its roster to help with the pandemic. Open positions include data entry, ushers for vaccine clinics, administrative assistants and registered nurses. The city is paying no less than $18 an hour. In all, 100 positions need to be filled.
This news and more on News Radio KLBJ:
https://omny.fm/shows/klbjam-flash-briefing-1/am-newscast-1-27-21
