1 September 2023
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Two people are dead and one person was taken to the hospital in critical condition after a shooting at The Arboretum shopping center in northwest Austin, according to Austin police.
One of the people who died at the scene is believed to be the shooter, APD said. They believe there is no threat to the general public.
At 5 p.m., APD responded to a 911 call of shots fired in the 10000 block of Research Boulevard, APD Interim Chief of Police Robin Henderson said during the media briefing Thursday night.
Police arrived seven minutes after the first call, the interim police chief said. Two people were found dead on the scene and one person was taken to the hospital in critical condition, APD said.
Henderson would not say what the relationship between the shooter and the victims was.
Henderson said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Fire and Explosives (ATF) and APD bomb squad responded to the scene because some people reported hearing what they believed to be an explosion. There were no explosives found on scene, she said.
‘It’s terrifying’
KXAN spoke with a woman who was shopping in the area when the shooting happened. Crystal told KXAN’s Grace Reader she got a text from her mom that alerted her to the news. She said she stopped what she was doing and left.
“It’s terrifying. My dad lives in this area. I live in this area. My son goes to school in this area. It’s just scary to know that we were just a couple of businesses away from where this happened,” Crystal said.