Man Charged In Austin Stabbing Spree Is Homeless: Police

AUSTIN, TX — The suspect in Friday's stabbing attack in South Austin that left a person dead and others injured is a homeless person, police confirmed on Saturday.

Citing the ongoing nature of the investigation, police added they will not be releasing the suspect's name or that of the person who died after being stabbed. An employee of Freebirds World Burrito, a man in his 20s, was fatally stabbed by the suspect after an earlier disturbance at an adjacent coffee shop. Another employee at the eatery, a man in his 50s, also was seriously injured.

The suspect — being described by police only as a Caucasian man in his 20s — then climbed onto the roof of the shopping center before running across it and jumping off — sustaining life-threatening injuries in the process, police said. The man subsequently was hospitalized in critical condition.

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Well before police confirmed in a 2:05 p.m. press advisory on Saturday the suspect is experiencing homelessness, Gov. Greg Abbott predicted the man's status mere hours after the fatal stabbing incident: "When all facts are revealed I bet you’ll learn that the killer was a homeless man with prior arrests," Abbott wrote on his personal Twitter account in the immediate aftermath of the attack. "If so Austin’s reckless homeless policy puts lives in danger to murders like this. Austin leaders must answer for their perilous policies."

With the tweet, Abbott politicized the deadly incident as fodder to criticize Austin City Council's attempts to deal with the homeless problem. Last summer, council relaxed rules related to the behavior of homeless — more lenient rules on sleeping and laying down on sidewalks, for example, along with allowing people to camp out in allowable areas. Abbott emerged as the most prominent critic of such relaxed rules, prolifically tweeting out his objections.

Facing some backlash for his latest tweet blaming this weekend's stabbing on council's relaxed rules, Abbott insisted he was not attacking the homeless. Instead, he is critical of municipal policies he perceives as too lenient on homeless people. "I'm not attacking homelessness," Abbott wrote. "I’m criticizing the lawlessness promoted by the City of Austin. The city’s top job is public safety and they are failing. Yesterday’s tragic murder is the most recent example."

As quoted in the Texas Tribune, Austin Mayor Steve Adler suggested the demonizing of homeless people as a criminal monolith for political gain is a slippery slope. “It's misleading and it's harmful to equate people experiencing homelessness with being criminals,” Adler said. “It’s like saying that immigrants are rapists. There's a real damage to society when we demonize people in ways that are simply not true.”

Mayor Pro Tem Delia Garza also took issue with Abbott's reflexively linking the fatal stabbing to a relaxed homeless ordinance. Instead, she suggested the fault lies with cuts in state mental health and housing resources that have occurred under the governor's watch.

"Events today were tragic," Garza wrote on Twitter. "But the governor suggesting that ATX Council has the authority to change laws on violent attacks/homicide is more of his scapegoating and a distraction from his poor leadership and the failure to fund the mental health and housing resources Texans need."

In an emailed press advisory, police said they would likely stage a news conference on Monday to provide more details. Patch will update when more information is shared by law enforcement officials.