AUSTIN, Texas — As communities grieve the losses of four victims in Austin, Monica Miller is reflecting on the lives of the two other victims who lived in her neighborhood near San Antonio: the parents of the suspect, Shane James Sr. and Phyllis James.
She knew James Sr. from the good deeds he performed in the neighborhood.
"Shane was a very private person, and he wasn't a person that did a lot of talking," Miller said. "He just was more the person that was, if you could call on him to do something, then he would do that. And very responsible. Seemed like a good father type, good family man."
After the shootings took place, Miller saw other members of the James family outside on the street, emotional and upset.
"Shane was very committed to making sure that he got our newsletters out quarterly in this day and time when it's really hard to find people committed to working in the community," Miller said.
In a recent news conference, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said Shane James Jr. was arrested in January 2022 after allegedly assaulting his parents and a sibling. He was released two months later.
In August, his father called authorities while his son was "acting out" and experiencing an apparent mental health episode.
"I think I was as shocked as everybody else to hear about the complications that his family had as far as some of the problems, and everybody has problems in their family," Miller said. "And I hated to hear that Shane was having the problems that he was having and that his son was having the problems that he was having that would even lead to such a tragedy."
As neighbors remember who they have lost in the city of Austin, Miller also asks the same for her community.
"I think he needs to be remembered that way, as a kind of neighbor, as a person that you can relate to, as far as being one of the kind of neighbors that you would want to have," Miller said.