Woman Fatally Stabbed, Suspect Shot By Cop In Central Austin

AUSTIN, TX — A woman died after being stabbed in Central Austin early Friday in a violent domestic disturbance ending when a police officer opened fire on a suspect.

Officers received an emergency call at 6:38 a.m. for a disturbance call between a man and a woman at an apartment complex along the 5000 block of Lynwood Street in the Rosedale neighborhood, Police Chief Brian Manley said in a subsequent press briefing. The initial caller indicated the man in the dispute could have been on drugs, he noted.

The caller told police the woman was being stabbed and its was unclear if she was still breathing. One of the officers, wearing a body cam, arrived in search of the attacker, and footage from the body-worn camera shows him encountering the suspect, armed with a knife, in a courtyard at the apartment complex, he said.

“The victim of the initial assault at this point is seen down on the ground and the suspect is walking around and appears to be armed with the knife,” Manley said. “The officer gives repeated commands to this individual to ‘drop it, drop it.’ The individual refuses to comply and he takes additional aggressive acts toward the female victim in this incident, and our officer fires his weapon.”

Police then applied first aid to both the suspect and victim. The former, a man in his 50s, was rushed to Dell Seton Medical Center in critical condition after being shot by police. The woman died at the scene.

Manley lamented that nothing could be done for the victim despite offices' efforts to save her: “It is obviously with great sadness that we lost someone today, but I can say from what I understand our officers did everything they could when they got here to put an end to the threat that this suspect posed to this victim,” Manley said.

The officer forced to shoot the suspect is a 23-year veteran of the local force, Manley said. He's been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation per protocol during officer-involved shootings.

This is a developing story. Patch will update with more details as they are made available.

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