Police: Austin Shooting Leaves 3 Dead, Suspect Identified As Former Detective

Police are searching for a gunman in northern Austin, Texas, following a shooting near a shopping plaza that left three people dead on Sunday.

Interim Austin Police Chief Joseph Chacon identified the suspect as Stephen Broderick, a former detective with the Travis County Sheriff’s Office. Chacon described him as a 41-year-old Black male last seen wearing a gray hoodie, sunglasses and a baseball cap.

The victims were two Hispanic women and one Black male, Chacon said during a press conference. A child who was “involved” in the incident has been located and is safe.

It appears as though the shooting was not a random attack, but an isolated incident in which Broderick targeted people he knew, Chacon said. Still, Broderick is considered “armed and dangerous,” the police chief said, adding that people should call 911 if they see anything suspicious.

“We are concerned that he might possibly take a hostage and be himself sheltered somewhere waiting for us to leave,” Chacon said. “We don’t know if he’s in a vehicle or if he’s on foot.”

Broderick resigned from the sheriff’s office last year after he was arrested and charged in June 2020 with sexual assault of a child and family violence.

Austin-Travis County EMS responded Sunday to a 911 report of shots fired at 11:42 a.m. local time, officials said. First responders located the victims, who were pronounced dead at the scene.

The shooting took place outside, near an apartment complex close to The Arboretum shopping plaza.

Police issued a shelter-in-place order for the area soon after the first report of gunshots. The order was lifted several hours later as the fugitive search for Broderick continued into the night.

Earlier Sunday, police tweeted that the shooting was a “domestic situation” that likely posed no risk to the general public.

Photos showed a heavy police presence at the scene. Journalists reported helicopters circling overhead as the manhunt unfolded.

The shooting is one of several in recent days that has resulted in multiple deaths. Early Sunday, at least three people were killed and two others seriously injured in a shooting at a bar near Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Eight people were killed Thursday at a FedEx warehouse in Indianapolis when a former employee opened fire inside the building. Last month, eight people, including six women of Asian descent, were shot to death at three Atlanta spas. Less than a week later, a gunman fatally shot 10 people inside a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.