AUSTIN, Texas — Until Saturday’s shooting, three Austin Police Department officers had died by gunfire from an assailant over the past five decades.
In 2012, a store surveillance camera at a Walmart at Interstate 35 and Parmer Lane in Austin captured the shooting death of APD Senior Officer Jaime Padron, a 3-year veteran of the force.
The camera footage showed Brandon Daniel entering the store. He stumbled and kept dropping the items he was holding. The manager later said that he suspected Daniel was a shoplifter and called for the police.
When Padron approached Daniel, he ran. The suspect was quickly tackled by the officer and a scuffle broke out. Daniel, a software engineer with no prior criminal record, pulled out a gun loaded with hollow-point bullets that he was carrying and shot Padron at point-blank range.
Daniel went on trial in Travis County in 2014, where a jury found him guilty of capital murder and sentenced him to death by lethal injection. Daniel’s mother claimed her son was high on Xanax and tequila the night of the killing.
Daniel was sent to death row, but before his execution date was set, he was found dead in his prison cell in 2021. Officials said foul play was not suspected, but no official cause of his death has been made public.
On May 28, 2001, Officer William Jones was shot and killed while conducting a traffic stop at Zilker Park.
According to an APD report, Jones was speaking with the driver of the vehicle when the driver suddenly opened fire, striking him in the chest twice and the neck once.
Jones was rushed to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead. He was not wearing a bulletproof vest, according to APD.
The suspect fled the scene but was spotted several hours later near Houston. After a short chase, the suspect died by suicide.
For many who lived in Austin in the late 1970s, Officer Padron’s death was a reminder of the death in 1978 of Senior Police Officer Ralph Ablanedo.
David Lee Powell shot Ablanedo with an AK-47 during a routine traffic stop. At his murder trial, Powell was found guilty and sent to Texas' death row.
Powell fought his conviction, and his appeals to higher courts lasted for decades, with some of the courts' rulings resulting in three retrials over the span of 30 years. Powell was found guilty each time. Eventually, an execution date was set for 2010.
Over the years, Powell had drawn some supporters who claimed he was a changed man and shouldn’t have to die 32 years after he had committed the crime.
A number of APD officers gathered at the state prison in Huntsville, Texas, when Powell was executed on June 15, 2010.