Man dead, two APD officers injured after SWAT incident

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Like many Dove Springs area residents, Tony Cruz heard some serious commotion in the neighborhood Sunday night and early Monday morning.

"I see all these police lights everywhere. The neighbors were all right here in the corner," said neighbor Tony Cruz.  "The helicopter kind of stopped for a little bit. then it got really quiet.  It was just like you could hear a pin drop."

Interim Austin Police Chief Brian Manley - once again speaking with press in the middle of the night - says police got an urgent but unknown 911 call around 10:49 Sunday night from the 5500 block of Ponciana Drive.

"The complainant called in requesting that the police respond to the location and then the call was disconnected," Manley said.

Manley says three officers knocked on the door of a duplex.  A resident there said no one had called 911 so they went to the other side.  No answer.

"And then as the officers were leaving, shots were fired from inside the residence and one of our officers was struck by that gunfire," Manley said.

Manley says the officers jumped over a fence to get to safety.  A second officer was injured possibly by that fence jump according to Manley and the third officer fired back at the suspect.

"As the SWAT team was surrounding the house they would report gunshots that were going off inside the house throughout the attempts to get the suspect to come out.  We evacuated the residents from around the surrounding homes," Manley said.

APD used their robot to breach the front door.  Manley says what happened next was caught on multiple department cameras.

"We know that the suspect exited the front door along with a female and at that time one of our members of the SWAT team fired upon the suspect and the suspect went down," Manley said.

The woman was taken into protective custody.

"That will be part of the ongoing investigation as far as whether she was the actual caller," Manley said.

And the suspect was pronounced dead at 2:10 Monday morning.  Manley says the injured officers have non-life threatening injuries and the officers that fired their weapons are on administrative leave.

"I don't know what happened, why they shot at the cop.  I know there's a lot of people drink on this road and a lot of parties," Cruz said.

Austin ISD cancelled school at Houston Elementary Monday.  
                
Dawnaway Lucero is a Houston Elementary parent.

"It's kind of scary to know that something goes on so close but I'm glad the police did what they had to do to get it taken care of," Lucero said.