APD investigating officer-involved shooting that left 1 dead in north Austin

AUSTIN, Texas - The Austin Police Department is investigating after a person died following an officer-involved shooting in North Austin.

Chief Joseph Chacon says at approximately 12:13 p.m. on Sunday, June 12, an officer on standard patrol observed a vehicle in the 800 block of E. Koenig Lane near Airport Boulevard that appeared to be disabled.

The officer went to check on the vehicle and observed one occupant in the vehicle.

"Within one minute of being on scene, the officer advised dispatch that the individual was quite irate, was yelling, was acting in an erratic manner," Chief Joseph Chacon with Austin Police, said.

APD says the subject had a knife in his hand, prompting the responding officer to call in for back up. Three additional officers came to assist. 

"They began to attempt to engage the individual in conversation and to see if they could deescalate his very agitated mood," Chacon said.

Officers spoke to him in English and Spanish.

"The male was yelling 'just shoot me,'" Chacon said.

The officers kept trying to deescalate, and one of them got a less lethal shotgun ready as the subject began to advance towards the officers. 

APD says the officer fired a less lethal round at the subject as he continued to advance towards the officers with a knife in his hands. 

"The subject then continued to advance on the officers with the knife in his hand at which time two of the officers deployed their APD issued firearms striking the individual," Chacon said.

He was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced deceased at 1:09 p.m.

No officers or other citizens were hurt.

Police say they're investigating how many shots were fired.

"I woke up and I heard like 14 shots," a witness who wanted to remain anonymous said. "How many times and I heard the shots and how many shots I heard, for me to find out it was the police actually shooting at someone, that was kind of crazy."

"I don't know whether or not I had an individual that was in mental health distress, and the difficulty in dealing with that are officers that are trying to deescalate that situation, and an individual with a knife. It's just a tragic situation and not one that I like coming to, I know our officers don't like being involved in this kind of manner," Chacon said. "We'll just continue to work as a community to work on those issues so they don't really come to a head as tragically as this one did."

There will be criminal and administrative investigations in the case with the DA's office and Office of Police Oversight.

The body cam video will be released within 10 days.

The subject's identity has not yet been released, but he is described as a Hispanic male, possibly in his 30s.

If you have any information or video of the incident, call police.