A police officer was shot and killed at a Walmart in Austin, Texas Friday morning. Art Acevedo, the Chief of Police for Austin said the officer had died after being shot in his neck. The officer had been responding to a report of a drunken man inside the Walmart at about 2:30 am.
Authorities said the man attacked the officer when he arrived at the Walmart. Officials said the officer did not even have an opportunity to pull his own weapon before he was shot and killed by the suspect. The name of the deceased officer was being withheld until all of next of kin could be located.
The suspect was then tackled by two employees from Walmart, who held him until police arrived. The store was then placed in a lock down mode and the suspect arrested when backup units arrived. The employees received praise from police chief Acevedo. A security camera at the store filmed the entire incident.
Once police had the suspect in custody, they and medics tried to revive the fallen officer, but he was pronounced dead around 2:44 am.
Walmart Stores, Inc. in a statement said, “We would like to express our sympathy to the family of the officers and his colleagues and we would like to say how proud we are of our staff at our store in Austin.”
The statement concluded saying, “Our store associates displayed a great deal of courage under very extreme circumstances.”
Chris Ott the city manager of Austin said, “It is a tragic day for Austin when we lose a member of our police department.”
