AUSTIN, Texas — The Austin Police Department (APD) released video footage and more information to the public Thursday regarding an incident in January where an APD officer shot a man.
APD Chief Joseph Chacon said that a 911 caller told officers that witnesses saw the suspect – later identified as Terry Gonzales, 31 – shoot a woman in a parking lot near a gas station around Interstate 35 and East Saint Johns Avenue around 2:30 a.m. on Jan. 29.
According to police documents, a different suspect has since been arrested and charged with that murder. Gonzales was booked under a separate aggravated robbery charge that occurred in the same area.
After getting a description of the suspect from a witness in the area, police found Gonzales a short time later walking out of a motel breezeway around near the scene and into the parking lot of the motel. Police said the officer identified himself "as an officer with the APD," then asked Gonzales to get on the ground, but he refused and continued to walk away.
The officer continued instructing Gonzales to get on the ground while the suspect walked away and did not comply, Chacon said.
When walking away, police said Gonzales walked in between two parked cars. That's when a police officer came face-to-face with Gonzales and shot at him multiple times, and Gonzales fell to the ground. Police said a gun was recovered from the place where Gonzales was laying. Gonzales was taken to a hospital by Austin-Travis County EMS and treated for non-life threatening injuries.
He was eventually released from the hospital and taken to the Travis County Central Booking Facility where he was charged with aggravated robbery.
In the APD's update on Feb. 10, Chacon presented video footage from two different body cameras and a 911 audio recording of the incident:
APD showed body camera footage from the officer who found and shot Gonzales and from an officer who walked onto the scene just moments before the suspect was shot.
Chacon said there are two concurrent investigations into this incident: a criminal investigation by the APD Special Investigations Unit in conjunction with the Travis County District Attorney's Office and an administrative investigation by the APD Internal Affairs Unit with oversight from the Office of Police Oversight.
Chacon told the media back when the incident occurred that the officer who fired their gun has been with the department for 2.5 years.
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