Two Austin police officers are on administrative leave following a shooting in downtown on Wednesday. One man was killed after walking toward officers with a knife, police said.
The incident was prompted by a check welfare call police received shortly before 5:00 p.m. A caller to 911 stated a man was banging loudly on an emergency exit door at the Spring Condominiums at 300 Bowie Street, and he appeared to be in the throes of a mental health crisis. Police officers, including a mental health officer, were dispatched to the scene, and by the time they arrived several minutes later, the man was reportedly inside of the building. Officers went inside to speak with staff.
The man had been seen earlier walking around with a large knife to his own throat, and hopped onto an elevator once he gained entry into the building, staff said.
As officers were devising a plan, they were informed that security footage had found the man on the fifth floor, and that he was waving the knife at the security camera. Police boarded the elevator and headed up to that floor. All of the officers were wearing body cameras. Once the doors opened, the situation escalated quickly, according to Chief of Police Brian Manley.
“The subject was standing just outside the elevator across a very narrow hallway, and as they began giving him commands, he turned around. It appears on the video he’s initially holding what is a very large kitchen knife to his throat. He then pulls it down more towards his side and begins walking toward the officers. As he takes a step or two towards the officers, two of the officers fired their duty pistols and one officer fired a tazer. It’s at this point that the subject falls — goes backwards and is no longer in the frame of the video, and the officers then go in and secure the subject and request medical assistance,” Manley said.
The man was still alive at the time he was taken to the hospital.
“The EMS and fire department arrived and they performed life-saving measures for quite some time, here on-scene, before transporting the subject to a local hospital,” Manley said. “He was pronounced deceased at 6:07 p.m.”
The man’s identity is not known, but he’s described as as a 46-year-old Asian man.
The two Austin police officers who fired their weapons have both been with the department for five years. As is standard protocol, they will remain on administrative leave pending the investigation.
Wednesday’s incident was the fourth time in a little less than three weeks that gunshots have rocked downtown Austin. On Sunday, July 21, a man was seen on video shooting a woman in the leg on 7th Street near the Austin Resource Center for the Homeless. Then, just one week later, a man was shot in that same area. On Tuesday, July 30, just a day after Chief Manley spoke publicly about an increase inviolence around downtown, more gunshots rang out a block away from Austin Police Headquarters and two people were sent to the hospital with critical injuries.
Austin police will be staffed at 100-percent in downtown until further notice, Manley said.
