Burnet officer fires weapon, killing man after driver runs over foot
BURNET, Texas (FOX 7 Austin) - The Texas Rangers spent most of Wednesday investigating the scene of an officer-involved shooting on McNeil Street in Burnet.
Burnet Police Chief Paul Nelson says a loud music complaint came in around 1:35 a.m. Wednesday. When officers arrived...
“Within seconds they approached a red vehicle, a red car,” Nelson said. "At that time the red car, the driver started backing up. The officer was giving verbal commands to stop."
Nelson says the driver ran over the officer’s left foot and the officer took action.
“Shot his weapon striking the driver of the vehicle,” he said.
The driver, a man, didn’t survive. The officer was taken to a hospital and Nelson says no bones were broken. He says that officer is on administrative leave per protocol.
“The officer with the Burnet Police Department has been with us for 3 years,” Nelson said.
Nelson says a woman in the passenger’s seat wasn’t injured and is being questioned.
Longtime resident Nancy Flores drove through her former neighborhood to see what was going on.
“My brother was killed two streets over back in 1979,” Flores said.
Flores said she feels the officer shouldn't have killed the man.
“He should have injured him to stop him but as far as shooting and killing the man, it just makes our little town look just as bad as all those other towns that this same thing is happening in,” she said.
She feels the situation could have been handled very differently.
“I’m not saying that what he did was right but at the same time what the officer has done is not right either,” Flores said. “That right there gives our society and people that live in our little community here, it keeps fear in them to say you know ‘if we call an officer because something is going on in a neighbor’s house or even our office, hopefully nobody gets out of line, somebody might get shot."
Law enforcement hasn't yet released the name of the man who was killed or the officer who fired his weapon.