SAN ANTONIO — A violent day of shootings in Texas' capital city may have started with a double-murder in the San Antonio area.
Bexar County authorities say they believe a man arrested in Austin on Tuesday also killed two people believed to be his parents at a home near Old Seguin and Walzem roads.
The suspect has been identified as Shane Matthew James Jr., and officials believe he is responsible for four shootings across south-central Texas. In total, six people are dead across San Antonio and Austin, with three more injured, including two police officers. All of the injured are expected to be OK.
Bexar County Sheriff Salazar says James is jailed without bond in Travis County, where he faces charges of capital murder.
The victims in Bexar County are believed to be Phyllis James, 55, and Shane James Sr., 56, who the sheriff said was the suspect's parents. Salazar said they were found shortly after deputies arrived to the 6000 block of Port Royal around 7:45 p.m. Tuesday and decided to force their way in.
The sheriff said Austin authorities have given the Bexar County Sheriff's Office (BCSO) only limited information about what happened there on Tuesday, but said it's believed the Bexar County victims were killed before the suspect headed north.
According to Salazar, neighbors described the family as quiet and living in a "very well-maintained" home.
"Nobody deserves to die the way we believe that they died," he said.
He is asking anyone in the neighborhood who may have heard or seen something between 10 p.m. Monday and 9 a.m. Tuesday to report it to Bexar County authorities.
Salazar says James had a previous criminal history, including a domestic violence charge from January 2022. Later that month, his bond conditions were changed to allow him to have contact with his family, the victims in that case. Salazar said the bond conditions change was at the request of his family and with the assistance of a victim's advocacy group.
He was released on bond and returned home with his family in March of 2022. The sheriff says he cut off his ankle monitor at that point. In August 2023, James encountered deputies again when they responded to a call for a mental health episode at his parent's address. In that incident, Salazar says, deputies were not able to take him into custody due to James creating a barrier between himself and the deputies.
James was also in the U.S. Army from 2013 to 2015.
Meanwhile, Austin police officials told our sister station KVUE that a series of Tuesday shootings may be connected to the two deaths in Bexar County.
It began when an Austin ISD police officer was shot in an "unprovoked way" outside a campus on the northeast side around 10:45 a.m. outside Northeast Early College High School on Berkman Drive in northeast Austin. Later, a man and a woman were found dead on the south side, and an Austin Police Department officer was also injured in a shooting.
Initially, investigators were not sure if these crimes were all connected to a single suspect.
The next incident is when police were able to make first contact with James. APD officers got a call about a burglary in progress at a home on Austral Loop in southwest Austin around 6:45 p.m.
APD said when officers arrived, a male suspect, later identified as James, began shooting at them. Officers returned fire but did not hit James.
The officers on scene called for backup. Austin-Travis County EMS medics and Austin Fire Department crews responded because an APD officer had been shot. That officer is going to be OK, according to APD.
During this time, James was able to get away and take off in a car.
Police chased James until he crashed his car near State Highway 45 and FM 1826. APD Interim Chief Robin Henderson said officers took James into custody and that he did have a gun on him.
While some of the responding officers were chasing James, other officers found two people dead inside the home on Austral Loop where the robbery was taking place.
James was taken to the Travis County Jail, where he was booked for murder and a family violence charge, with further charges pending.
Interim Chief Henderson said, per APD policy, body camera footage from this incident will be released within 10 days.
The officer who fired their weapon is on administrative leave, per the department's policy. They have been with APD for 12 years.
It is not clear at this time if James knew any of his alleged victims in Austin or if these were random attacks.
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