Austin police injured by suspect who took officer's taser

A couple of Austin police officers are recovering after a suspect hit them with an officer's Taser.
               
The officers were responding to an attempted assault at the Town Lake Student Apartments in South Austin after it was reported that a neighbor got into an argument with a suspect who tried to shove pills down the man's throat.

Police said they were at the apartment complex one hour before the call dealing with the same suspect.

“They knew which apartment he lived in so they went to go make contact with him. As they were walking over to his apartment, the suspect was outside the apartment, saw them coming and took off running through the apartment complex,” said Austin Police Sgt. David Boyd.

Police said they called out on the radio that the suspect ran away and additional officers saw the suspect heading south on Pleasant Valley Road and tried to stop him.

“They initially tried deploying a Taser on the subject. At some point during the scuffle with the subject, he was able to get the Taser away from one of the officers and began using the Taser on the officers trying to subdue him,” Boyd said.

The suspect continued using the end of the Taser to shock officers on scene. In total, five officers were injured and taken to UMC Brackenridge. Two of them are on light duty while they recover; the other three are back to their normal work routine.

“One officer ending up getting several staples in top of his head and stitches in his forehead; the other one still out on light duty has a very swollen hand from fighting with him,” said Boyd.

Once more officers arrived to help; the suspect was arrested and taken to Travis County Jail.

“Right now we're looking at aggravated assault on a peace officer and taking a weapon from a peace officer and there could be potential more charges coming later on,” Boyd said.

Police said they are still looking into what protocol was used that allowed the suspect to get a hold of the Taser. They also need to finish reviewing video of the incident.

The victim of the attempted assault at the apartment complex decided not to press charges and was not taken to a hospital.