Off-duty detective stopped violent ‘road rage' incident in Burnet County

Tom Suarez runs the Hill Country Scanner Facebook page. Thursday night a little after 10 the local law enforcement scanner traffic lit up.

“It was just some routine traffic at first, traffic stops and that kind of thing and then the Burnet County dispatcher came on and you could tell there was an intensity in her voice. And she was telling people that they had an officer on the phone that was involved in a gun fight,” Suarez said.

According to the Burnet County Sherrif’s Office an off-duty Austin Police officer on his way home saw a man pointing a handgun at another vehicle on FM 1431. In that vehicle — a family of 3.

The sheriff’s office says some sort of road rage incident had occurred.

“He recognized that lives were in danger. He immediately stopped his car, exited his vehicle and fired his weapon at the suspect in this incident. He did end up striking the suspect,” said Interim Austin Police Chief Brian Manley.

In a press release, the Burnet County Sherrif’s office says there was an exchange of gunfire.

The suspect was hit twice.

Manley says the suspect is a 55-year-old man. He was taken to a hospital and expected to be ok. The Burnet County Sheriff’s Office and the Texas Rangers are working the case.

APD is conducting an administrative investigation. Manley says the off-duty detective is an 19-year veteran of the Department. He’ll be put on administrative duty during the investigation.

“It’s part of his job, he’s on duty 24 hours a day basically because he’s a police officer so yeah I think he did what he had to do,” Suarez said.

“I think this highlights the fact, we talk about this that as a police officer even though you’re off duty you may be on duty and that’s why you always have to be aware, you have to pay attention and you have to be prepared to take action because from what I understand the facts to be our detective saved lives last night,” Manley said.

The Burnet County Sheriff’s office says there will be charges for the suspect.

They are pending at the moment.