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Police Investigating Deadly Shooting At Austin Protest

MOSE BUCHELE / KUT
The scene of a shooting Saturday night in downtown Austin, near the corner of Fourth and Congress.

Update: The man killed during Saturday night's deadly shooting has been identified as Garrett Foster. His mother Sheila Foster told Good Morning America that her son had been attending the protests with his fiancé Whitney Mitchell. 

Police are investigating a homicide after a person was shot dead during a protest Saturday night in Austin. 

A video of the shooting shows a vehicle trying to drive through a crowd of demonstrators who were marching in the street near Congress Avenue and 3rd Street just before 10 p.m. Honking and pounding can be heard, somebody shouts for people to back up, and then five gunshots can be heard. The crowd scatters and, moments later, three more gunshots are fired.

Austin police officers immediately arrive on scene and first aid is rendered to the shot person, but an official said the person died shortly after arriving at Dell Seton Medical Center. 

Senior Officer Katrina Ratcliff said during a brief news conference, “Initial reports indicate the victim may have been carrying a rifle and approached suspect’s vehicle. Suspect was in the vehicle and shot at the victim. Suspect was detained...” 

No other injuries were reported as of early Sunday morning. 

A witness at the scene named Julian told KUT Austin, "As we’re walking down passing Fourth Street, a blue car just come swerving out into the middle of the street almost runs over a bunch of protesters and everybody around starts like smacking the car trying to get him to slow down. He pulls down his window and he fires three shots into the guy. From point-blank. No words no nothing. And then rolls up his window and zooms off."

Just after the shooting, a distraught woman in the video said the person shot was a man who’d regularly attended protests in Austin for the past 50 days or so.

Jolene Almendarez can be reached at JoleneAlmendarez@gmail.com and on Twitter at @jalmendarez57.

 

Jolene Almendarez can be reached at jolenealmendarez@gmail.com.