School district officer in Austin, Texas is wounded in a shooting spree that left at least 4 dead
The wounding of a police officer with the Austin (Texas) Independent School District Tuesday near a local high school marked the beginning of a shooting spree that left four people dead.
The Austin American-Statesman reports that the alleged shooter, who also is a suspect in the deaths of his parents near San Antonio, is in police custody.
Shane James, 34, has been charged with capital murder and is being held in the Travis County Jail.
The school district officer was wounded in the leg and is expected to recover.
KXAN-TV reports that the officer, a sergeant, was shot at about 10:40 a.m. as he performed daily checks at Northeast Early College High School. The school went on lockdown; no one else was injured.
At about noon, another shooting was reported elsewhere in Austin. A man and a woman were fatally shot.
Around 5 p.m., police responded to a call of a shooting of a cyclist, who had sustained non-life-threatening injuries.
Shortly before 7 p.m., a burglary in progress was reported at a residence in Austin. An officer exchanged gunfire with a suspect. The officer was wounded with non-life-threatening injuries. Inside the residence, police found two bodies, "apparent victims of the suspect."
The suspect fled the scene in a vehicle, but was taken into custody around 7:14 p.m. after crashing his vehicle.
The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office said a suspected double homicide near San Antonio that occurrred before the Austin shootings appears to be tied to James. The victims were confirmed by sources to be his parents, Phyllis James, 55, and Shane M. James Sr., 56.
