By Tony Plohetski
Austin American-Statesman
AUSTIN — An Austin police SWAT officer was shot while executing a search warrant at a home in North Austin early Thursday, Austin police Chief Art Acevedo said. Another SWAT team member exchanged fire with the shooter, who surrendered to police within minutes of the shooting.
Acevedo said the officer who was shot, a seven-year veteran on the force, was with his family in stable condition at University Medical Center Brackenridge. He will remain off-duty while he recovers, the chief said.
A SWAT team had been executing a search warrant at a duplex where a suspect wanted for narcotics trafficking and sales lived on Morrow Street near North Lamar Boulevard, Acevedo said. The officers breached the doors at 5:54 a.m. while announcing themselves through a special PA system, he said. The team also used flash distraction devices as the officers moved into the home.
An 18-year-old who police did not identify fired at the uniformed officers from upstairs, Acevedo said. The shooter fired multiple times and struck one officer in the knee; another officer returned fire but did not hit the shooter, he said. Officers retreated from the home at 5:59 a.m., Acevedo said.
About 12 minutes later, the shooter exited the home and surrendered to police with a woman believed to be his mother, the chief said. Acevedo said officers found drugs at the home.
Police cleared the home with a bomb squad robot, but officers have no reason to believe any explosives were inside the home.
The officer who returned fire is an eight-year veteran on the force and will be placed on paid administrative leave, which is standard protocol in officer-involved shootings. Police are launching internal affairs and criminal investigations into the actions of officers and suspect, which also is standard procedure in such incidents.
Alfred Mendez was in bed when he heard two distinct banging noises.
“I didn’t know what it was,” he said. “We wondered what it was, then we heard a ton of sirens.”
Mendez lives a few blocks away and took his dog Bruno out to check things out. He’s lived in Austin since 1977 and said this incident does not make him any more alarmed or concerned than he already was about crime.
“Austin is a big city. There’s definitely too much property crime. But because I live in the Rundberg-St. John’s area, I’m used to the police helicopter overhead,” Mendez said. “If anything, I don’t like that when this happens they make all these people evacuate.”
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