Austin gun store owner claims employees acted in self-defense in East Austin shooting

AUSTIN, Texas - Austin Police are investigating the city's 20th homicide of the year after a man was killed in East Austin on Friday night. Now a local gun store owner is saying two of his employees were involved and acted in self-defense. 

Austin club shooting

Austin police say that at around 8:40 p.m. April 10, they received a call about a disturbance outside the Cabana Club in the 5000 block of E. 7th Street.

The call was in reference to a group of people inside the club, then outside the club in an altercation that resulted in gunfire. 

Officers responded to the scene a few minutes later to find an adult man with obvious trauma to his body. Life-saving measures were attempted but were ultimately unsuccessful. The man was pronounced dead at 9:02 p.m.

Store owner weighs in

What they're saying:

"My employee did exactly what I would have done, he did exactly what he was trained to do by stopping that threat," said Michael Cargill, the owner of Central Texas Gun Works, an Austin gun store. 

On Saturday he hosted a press conference where he announced that two of his employees were involved in the shooting at Cabana Club. 

"My employees were just there to have a great time," said Cargill. He claims that his assistant manager and a sales clerk were mistaken for the wrong people as they entered the Cabana Club parking lot. 

"These people were in the parking lot who had just gotten kicked out of the club and mistook my employees as someone who was actually involved in an incident which happened in the club." said Cargill. "They immediately started jumping on my employees, assaulting them."

He went on to claim that as the altercation continued, more people joined in on the assault against his employees, with as many as twelve people being involved. Eventually, one of his employees was knocked unconscious, which led to the other employee taking action. 

"My other employee saw that he was knocked unconscious and made his decision to pull out his firearm and stop the threat." 

Shots ring out

That's when shots rang out, leaving one man dead. After opening fire, Cargill says the employee left the scene. 

"He did exactly what he was supposed to do, and that's to get out of there, because there's twelve people, a dozen people attacking two people. He has to get out of there."

That employee supposedly then went to urgent care for treatment and was eventually taken into police custody. According to Cargill, they are being held in the Travis County Jail and are currently being charged with murder. 

Cargill's other employee supposedly suffered a fractured skull and bruised ribs but is now recovering after being treated at the hospital. 

Cargill says that he fully supports his employees' actions and that they will be represented by the Central Texas Gun Works legal team throughout the case. He declined to share the employees' identities at this time. 

FOX 7 has reached out to APD to confirm the details shared today by Michael Cargill but have yet to hear back.