Texas law enforcement authorities announced the arrest of the suspect in the day-long shooting that killed at least six people, including the shooter's parents.
The shooting spree started in San Antonio and continued through Austin on Wednesday. The suspect in the case was identified as 34-year-old Shane James of San Antonio. He has been charged with two counts of capital murder after separate attacks in Austin and his home region that started on Tuesday morning.
Texas Day-Long Shooting Spree
The incident then ended when James crashed his car in the evening of that same day while being pursued by police officers. Authorities revealed that the suspect was found to have a history of mental health problems and a prior arrest on charges of assaulting family members.
The parents of the shooter were identified as 55-year-old Phyllis James and 56-year-old Shane James Jr. Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said during a news conference that they were found dead inside their home in the San Antonio area. They then discovered four more deceased in two different houses in Austin, as per the Associated Press.
Austin Interim Police Chief Robin Henderson said that a cyclist in Austin was also shot and wounded while two police officers were recovering from injuries. One of them was reportedly shot in the leg outside of a high school. He added that it was unclear what relationship, if any, the shooter had to the victims in their area.
Online jail records did not indicate whether or not the shooter had an attorney and several people who were listed as his relatives in public records did not immediately respond to phone calls on Wednesday.
A spokesperson for the army, Lt. Col. Ruth Castro said that the suspect is a former US Army infantry officer who served from February 2013 to August 2015. He also had no deployments and his last rank was first lieutenant.
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At Least Six Victims
Henderson noted that law enforcement authorities did not immediately connect the series of episodes until the last shooting occurred at around 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday. It was when one of the police officers shot by James responded to a residence after a 911 call about a burglary in progress, according to Yahoo News.
The police chief added that the officer went to the backyard of the residence and confronted the suspect, who immediately fired his gun and struck the officer multiple times. She noted that the victim suffered non-life-threatening injuries, returned fire, and missed the suspect, who then ran to a vehicle and fled the scene.
The police chase of James lasted roughly 15 minutes and he was armed at the time that law enforcement personnel arrested him. Investigators also discovered that the shooter had a warrant out for causing injury to a family member.
It remains a mystery why the AISD Police and Austin Police did not issue a community-wide alert describing the suspect for residents to be aware of. Salazar added that the victims in San Antonio were well-known in the community, said the Daily Mail.
