A Tragic Day in Austin: One Shocked Neighborhood's Perspective in Real Time
How the events unfolded in a totally blindsided Circle C Ranch, the final area impacted by the senseless violence, and why the response by officials raises questions
It was about 7 PM last evening in the Austin suburb of Circle C Ranch when residents first knew something was horribly wrong. There was suddenly a bevy of police sirens, the jarring sounds of a law enforcement chopper whirring above, and, for some ears, the unmistakable pop of gunshots—with zero context for any of it.
We now know that this was the final act of an unspeakably evil day-plus of violence perpetrated by a despicable coward, which purportedly began with two murders in San Antonio, before moving north to Austin and visiting horror and bloodshed on three locations: a high school, a peaceful SE Austin neighborhood, and Circle C Ranch, where two more people were killed, at least one APD officer was shot, and the suspect was apprehended. Per a law enforcement source with knowledge of the situation, the suspect eventually “surrendered like a scared little bitch.”
Per a law enforcement source with knowledge of the situation, the suspect eventually “surrendered like a scared little bitch.”
In the light of day, the toll from these events, both physical and emotional, is steep. Six human beings have lost their lives, and at least three additional people have gunshot wounds that they will, thankfully, survive.
This is not going to be an essay on the sickness of our gun-obsessed culture. There are plenty of those which do a much better job than I could. But I want to help make sure, even in 2023 America where mass shootings often last only one news cycle, that we pause to try and take in and process the human impact of these horrifying events.
In doing so, I’m going to focus for a moment on one of the shooting locations, Circle C Ranch, to give a feel for how insane and dizzying those couple of hours were.
Let me set the scene: It’s dinner time in a relatively safe and easygoing Austin suburb. People are home from work, enjoying a meals with families, and engaging in the regular and mundane activities they would any other Tuesday night. Then gunshots are heard, quickly followed by the droning police helicopter circling above and sirens.
I spoke with multiple Circle C residents and the common theme from them was an utter and complete blindsiding: both about what was happening in those moments and the fact that there was no warning at all—even after there was a series of violent events earlier in the day across Austin.
I spoke with multiple Circle C residents and the common theme from them was an utter and complete blindsiding: both about what was happening in those moments and the fact that there was no warning at all—even after there was a series of violent events earlier in the day across Austin.
They were given no shelter in place order or any meaningful information from official channels until well after the suspect was captured. What news was available was spotty, a bit coming from reporters just getting to the scene, but most from the people in the neighborhood itself trying to make sense of it via texts and message boards. Residents learned of a biker (who is thankfully okay!) being shot behind Alamo Drafthouse from a Facebook post. Not via an APD tweet or anything from the City of Austin.
As the tragic double murder of a mother and daughter in Circle C fairly soon after this biker was shot demonstrates, most of the residents in this area had no fucking clue there was even a threat, or if they did, they had no understanding of what the threat looked like.
As the tragic double murder of a mother and daughter in Circle C fairly soon after this biker was shot demonstrates, most of the residents in this area had no fucking clue there was even a threat, or if they did, they had zero understanding of what the threat looked like. This appears to be a substantial fumble by authorities, especially in light of the killings and shooting earlier in the day at two other Austin locations.
A bit down Slaughter Lane from Circle C at Bowie High School at about 7:30 PM, a basketball game was about to tip off between Bowie and Dripping Springs with hundreds of kids and adults in an unsecured location while a homicidal gunman was still on the loose close by. Yet there was no call to shelter in place or lock down. Why? Or, more pointedly, how? How did this slip through the cracks? Some hard and fair questions need to be asked, at a minimum, about these lines of communication going forward.
A police officer at Bowie who was there for normal game security was, per a source, clearly shaken by what he was hearing, commenting to someone “this is so bad. You have no idea how bad this is.” Well, now we know.
A bit down Slaughter Lane at Bowie High School at about 7:30 PM, a basketball game was about to tip off between Bowie and Dripping Springs with hundreds of kids and adults in an unsecured location while a homicidal gunman was still on the loose close by. Yet there was no call to shelter in place or lock down. Why? Or, more pointedly, how? How did this slip through the cracks?
Later in the evening, long after the suspect was apprehended, message boards and text chains continued to churn on and sift through fact and fiction, since official sources were still being tight lipped. I had learned, through a source, of the double homicide on Austral Loop, while most of the residents nearby appeared to be in the dark about the killings. In an age where information is so abundant, this disconnect is jarring.
If a police officer is shot 600 miles away in El Paso, every phone in Austin is immediately ablaze with a Blue Alert. But if a crazed gunman is on the loose in a neighborhood, the people there are left totally in the dark to fend for themselves.
While the real tragedy of the last 36 hours is that of the victims and their families and friends left to pick up the pieces of their suddenly shattered lives, I think it’s well worth taking a hard look at how the situation was handled by public officials/law enforcement to try and ascertain what could have been done better.
If a police officer is shot 600 miles away in El Paso, every phone in Austin is immediately ablaze with a Blue Alert. But if a crazed gunman is on the loose in a neighborhood, the people there are left totally in the dark to fend for themselves. That’s objectively not right, and I challenge people in positions of power in Austin to put some real work into thinking about how things can improve going forward.
I saw the news last night, and none of it was coherent. No description of a suspect. Nothing. In a different part of S Austin, but we don’t hear of the stuff that happens while there are helicopters circling my house while law enforcement look for someone with K-9 officers on the ground. Why are affected residents the last to know?
Well said, Evil One. The police did well to catch him, but they need to get a lot better at communicating.