What to Know
- Man arrested, accused of multiple counts of capital murder for six slayings. Three others are injured and recovering.
- The identities of the victims will be released after their families are notified of their deaths.
- Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the suspect is a "hardened criminal" and vows to "impose the full weight of law" on the suspect "for his despicable crimes."
A Texas man suspected of killing his parents in San Antonio and four others in Austin in a violent trail of separate attacks had cut off his ankle monitor from a previous misdemeanor domestic violence arrest, authorities said Thursday.
The suspect, 34-year-old Shane James Jr., also had been confronted by deputies in August for a mental health call when he was naked at his parents’ home, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said at a news conference Wednesday afternoon. But deputies did not arrest him at that time, despite a warrant for cutting off the ankle monitor.
Salazar tentatively identified the victims in Bexar County as 56-year-old Shane M. James Sr. and 55-year-old Phyllis James. The victims are believed to be the parents of the suspect.
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Salazar said the suspect's parents were believed to have been shot multiple times sometime between 10 p.m. on Dec. 4 and 9 a.m. on Dec. 5. The sheriff said the suspect then used his father's car to get to Travis County where the other shootings occurred.
"This occurred, and then the suspect drove to Austin and did what he did there," Salazar previously told reporters.
The sheriff did not reveal the identities of any of the victims in Travis County.
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Salazar said James, who had been accused of family violence toward his parents and a sibling in January 2022, would be charged with murder or capital murder in his county in the coming days.
Our hearts break for the shooting victims, injured officers, their families, and our communities impacted by yesterday’s senseless and tragic gun violence.
Travis County District Attorney's Office
The spate of violence began in Travis County Tuesday with the shooting of a police officer outside an Austin high school and ended with the suspect crashing his car during a police pursuit that evening, Austin interim Police Chief Robin Henderson said.
The four who died in Travis County were found in two homes in Austin, roughly 80 miles away from San Antonio.
Henderson said it was unclear what, if any, relationship the man had to the victims in Travis County.
Austin Police identified the suspect in the shootings Wednesday afternoon and released a booking photo. Online jail records in Travis County show he was being held on charges of capital murder and misdemeanors from other counties. The records do not indicate whether James has an attorney and several people listed as relatives of James in public records did not immediately respond to phone messages Wednesday.
James has been remanded without bond.
"We strongly believe one suspect is responsible for all of the incidents," Henderson said during a news conference early Wednesday.
Henderson said authorities did not determine the Austin attacks were connected until the final one at a home, which happened more than eight hours after a school police officer was shot and wounded in a high school parking lot on the other side of the city.
In a statement, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said the state would "impose the full weight of law on this criminal for his despicable crimes."
"Texans grieve for the loved ones of the six Texans who were murdered by a hardened criminal who must never see the light of day again," Abbott said in the statement.
Similarly, in a statement, President Joe Biden called the Texas and Las Vegas shootings "horrific" and demanded Congress to put forth an assault weapons ban and to pass national red flag laws.
"Jill and I join citizens across our nation in praying for the families of our fallen, and for those who were injured during these latest acts of senseless violence," Biden said in the statement.
"Republican lawmakers must join with Democrats in Congress to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, pass a national red flag law, enact universal background checks, require the safe storage of guns, and advance other commonsense measures that will help stem the tide of gun violence," Biden said.
The attacks were the country's 42nd mass killings this year, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University. At least 217 people have died this year in those killings, which are defined as incidents in which four or more people have died within 24 hours, not including the killer - the same definition used by the FBI.
A timeline provided by Texas authorities revealed the wide ground the suspect allegedly covered between the attacks.
Henderson said it began with the Austin school district police officer being shot in the leg at about 10:45 a.m. Tuesday outside Northeast Early College High School. Then, at about noon, police who responded to a home after getting calls about gunshots found two people with signs of trauma. Police said one was dead and the other died at a hospital.
Daniel Moyer, who lives in the neighborhood, said the area is typically peaceful and felt shaken Wednesday. The neighborhood in south Austin is more than 10 miles from the high school where the officer was shot.
"It could have been me and my wife," Moyer said.
Another shooting happened shortly before 5 p.m. when a male cyclist suffered injuries that were not life threatening.
About two hours later, police responded to a call of a burglary in progress at another home and found two people dead there. Henderson did not say how the four people in Austin died.
Henderson said that during the call at the last residence, an Austin police officer saw a man in the backyard. The man shot and wounded the officer who returned fire and was taken to a hospital, where he was listed in stable condition.
Police said the suspect, who was not hit, drove away and police chased him. He crashed at about 7:15 p.m. at a highway intersection and was taken into custody. The man had a gun, Henderson said.
"The male suspect who was taken into custody was transported to the Travis County Jail and is charged with capital murder," Henderson said. "He was also booked in for an outstanding assault with injury family violence warrant. Further charges are pending."
Meanwhile, inside the home, officers discovered the bodies of two people.
She said the officer who was shot and the other officers were wearing body cameras and the video would be released within 10 business days.
The investigations into the shootings are ongoing.
NBC News also confirmed James was an infantry officer in the Army from February 2013 to August 2015. His last rank was first lieutenant. He had no deployments and service on Aug. 17, 2015.
The Travis County District Attorney's Office thanked the Austin Police, Austin ISD Police, Texas DPS, U.S. Marshals and FBI for their quick work apprehending the suspect.
