Armed Man Shot By Police In South Austin (UPDATED)

SOUTH AUSTIN, TEXAS — A man was shot by police up to three times after allegedly pointing a gun at officers in South Austin on Friday night, officials said.

The shooting occurred along the 6800 block of Shadywood Drive, near Bedicheck Middle School on Thelma Drive, police officials said during a press briefing staged just past midnight. Police initially responded to the 7:37 p.m. call as an assist to fire crews headed to put out a reported grass fire. But as police approached the scene, updates indicated a 41-year-old Hispanic man was armed with a firearm he allegedly was pointing to bystanders and himself.

Some 17 minutes into the standoff, officers approached the suspect in earnest while issuing commands for him to drop the weapon after earlier attempts to deescalate the situation from a block away, an officer told reporters. It was then that the suspect pointed the gun at the police, the spokesman said, prompting two officers to fire at the suspect.

Given their proximity to the fallen suspect, police at the scene proceeded to administer first aid before arriving medics transported the man to South Austin Medical Center for treatment of his injuries, the officer told reporters.

Despite being shot up to three times, the suspect was in stable condition with injuries not deemed to be life-threatening, police said. It was still unclear past midnight what type of weapon the man was wielding at the time, as it had yet to be processed at the time of the press briefing. Police noted the suspect was also responsible for the grass fire that initiated the emergency response.

The officers involved in the shooting are as yet unidentified, but they were described as three- and nine-year veterans of the Austin police force. Per protocol after officer-involved shootings, both officers will be placed on administrative desk duty pending the outcome of the internal investigation, according to the department spokesman.

Whole swaths of the neighborhood were sealed off from traffic during the incident, including arteries around Shadywood Drive, Bill Hughes Road and the area around the middle school. Police said the man lives in the neighborhood, and family members were among those trying to coax him to drop the weapon before he was shot.

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