A man accused of killing six people and injuring three others, including two officers, in a series of shootings across Austin and San Antonio on Tuesday has been arrested and charged with capital murder, according to police.
Interim Austin police chief Robin Henderson announced the capital murder charges and other pending charges against the suspect at a news conference early Wednesday. The Austin Police Department says that the man is linked to four shootings in Austin and possibly a homicide in San Antonio that all took place over eight hours Tuesday; the mass shooting was the 39th of 2023, according to a Washington Post database.
While authorities did not name the suspect, Travis County jail records show that Shane James, 34, was booked on four counts of capital murder at around 2:30 a.m. Wednesday.
Advertisement
Henderson confirmed to reporters that the shootings were connected, but did not give more details. Police didn’t name the victims.
“I want to emphasize that APD and other law enforcement did not determine that these incidents were connected until the last incident occurred tonight after the male suspect was taken into custody,” Henderson said, adding that the nature of the relationship between the victims and the shooter was “unknown.”
If convicted, the suspect could face the death penalty or life in prison. It’s unclear whether he has an attorney.
The Texas shooting spree comes days after the United States hit a grim milestone in mass killings this year. On Sunday, the 37th and 38th shootings this year in which four or more victims were killed made 2023 the highest number of mass killings in any year since at least 2006. The 36 such shootings last year marked the previous record. Including Tuesday’s shooting, the number of mass killing victims now is at 203, not counting the shooters — yet another record. Ninety-four people were wounded in those events but survived.
The Texas shootings began Tuesday morning, when an Austin Independent School District police officer was shot in the leg around 10:40 a.m. The shots were fired in the vicinity of Northeast Early College High School in Austin and led to a lockdown, authorities said. The officer was in stable condition and set to be released from the hospital on Tuesday, Wayne Sneed, the district’s police chief, told reporters.
Advertisement
Then, at around noon, officers responded to “multiple calls for help” of a double homicide of a man and woman about 12 miles south of the shooting near the high school, Austin Police Sgt. Destiny Silva told reporters.
Share this articleShare“Our officers arrived on scene at approximately 12:04 p.m. and located a male and a female victim with obvious signs of trauma to their body,” Silva said. One of them was pronounced dead there and the other was pronounced dead at the hospital, Silva said.
At about 5 p.m., a male cyclist was shot near an Alamo Drafthouse. The cyclist suffered injuries that were not life-threatening, Henderson said.
Almost two hours later, police received a call of a burglary in progress about two miles from where the cyclist was shot. When APD officers arrived to find the man later identified as the suspect in the backyard of a home, he started firing at an officer, police said. The officer returned fire and suffered gunshot wounds that Henderson described as not life-threatening.
Advertisement
The suspect fled in a vehicle, Henderson said, but crashed the car at a highway intersection. The man was arrested at 7:14 p.m.
As police were going through the home where the burglary was reported, officers found that two people had been killed. Henderson told reporters that the male suspect is linked to those deaths.
When police were investigating the man following his arrest, they realized that he might have been involved in the deaths of two other people in San Antonio on Tuesday morning, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar told reporters. Salazar said a man and a woman in their 50s were found dead inside their residence in San Antonio, about 80 miles southwest of Austin.
“He’s got links to this house, but I’m not quite sure what his relationship, if any, to the people here in this house is,” Salazar said.
Advertisement
In addition to the capital murder charges, Henderson said the male suspect was booked on “an outstanding assault with injury [and] family violence warrant” with further charges pending. Henderson did not take questions during the news conference because of the “complexity” of the situation, police spokeswoman Anna Sabana told the Austin American-Statesman.
Classes and after-school activities at Northeast Early College High School were canceled Wednesday, the district announced. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) released a statement Wednesday saying that he the state was praying for “the loved ones of the six Texans who were murdered by a hardened criminal who must never see the light of day again.”
“Texas is a law-and-order state, and violence will never be tolerated,” Abbott said. “Cecilia and I ask our fellow Texans to join us in lifting up in prayer the families and loved ones of those who were killed, as well as the Texans who are recovering from injuries, including an Austin Police Officer and an Austin Independent School District police officer.”
Bonnie Berkowitz contributed to this report.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uK3SoaCnn6Sku7G70q1lnKedZLuiwMiopWhqYGeAcH2RaGdvZ6SaxaK%2FjKyfqKeknruoedKpqZ6dXZa%2Fs7HSrWSaraOptq950pqlZpmeqbyvtc5o