Man charged with attempted capital murder after SWAT incident

AUSTIN, Texas - A man is in the Travis County Jail for the charge of attempted capital murder of a police officer. Austin police say he stabbed a SWAT team member three times in the head. Luckily, the officer was wearing a helmet.

Video captured by FOX 7 shows a man in a white shirt coming out of a home off Manor and Loyola in East Austin.

Officers say the man barricaded himself inside hours earlier after possibly committing a burglary nearby.

20-year-old Dominique Devon Smith raises his arms appearing to surrender to the Austin Police SWAT team, but officers say he was not complying with commands.

Smith is taken to the ground with less lethal bean bag shots as the crowd erupts in screams thinking they were real bullets.

Lt. Katrina Pruitt tells what FOX 7's cameras could not see.

"He hops up with a knife that the officers didn't see at that point and struck one of my officers in the head three times," said Pruitt.

The SWAT officer was wearing a helmet and was uninjured. Officers tasered Smith at that point.

"When we finally got him under control, we found a second knife identical to the knife that he struck officer Rosales with in his pocket," said Pruitt.

At the time of his arrest Smith was wanted on two felony warrants; one for obstructing police and a probation violation for evading in a motor vehicle.

Smith will now be charged with attempted capital murder of a police officer.

"I've seen the damage to the helmet and it's a bullet resistive helmet and there's damage to it. So, the intent was there," said Pruitt.

Smith faces an additional burglary charge. He has two prior convictions for evading arrest. One was in Travis County in 2012, the other in Guadalupe County in 2014.