South/Central Texas Multiple Homicides (6 dead, 9 shot) 12/5/23

[YGIFS 19,449]

3 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Also…to bring it back to being germane to this thread…we COULD, at a bare minimum, make it so it’s not easier for them to arm themselves than it is to obtain decent medical care. Just spitballing here.

Yeah, we talk a big game on here about homelessness, the mentally ill, and addiction.  But every day in Texas, it's some version of this hundreds and hundreds of times each day:

"I don't think I'm well in the head.  When can I see a doctor or counselor or pharmacist?"

-Well, not for a few weeks and we'll need insurance information, valid payment info, identification, medical history, triplicate forms from the notary public, and your mother's mom's elementary school mascot."

"What am I supposed to do in the meantime while I get all that shit together and get on the wait-list for services?"

-We recommend this cache of firearms for no money down.

[Gatorubet 30,183]

Since the eyes will be on New Orleans for the sugar bowl this year, that usually results in the sporadic sweeps of homeless people and their tents under the I-10 overpass, as the city does not want to present itself as a place with a lot of people shitting on the sidewalk and screaming at you.

True, the city collectively cares about them on the days the temperature drops to freezing. Then their overwhelming concern kicks in - and they give them a place to stay until it warms up. Which here is a week,   Then it’s back to the normal “We don’t give a fuck about whether you live or die” mentality.

[CleverNickname 1,308]

My thought is that those folks have always been with us. Just that 80 years ago there was lots of seasonal ag work with room & board and "back 40" where the weird uncle could go live alone and be their unmedicated selves. Such options don't really exist anymore. 

[Nicole44 22,056]

1 hour ago, Brisketexan said:

Also…to bring it back to being germane to this thread…we COULD, at a bare minimum, make it so it’s not easier for them to arm themselves than it is to obtain decent medical care. Just spitballing here.

I understand that and 100% agree.

I am just talking about mental illness in general and how it should be treated and looked at. The human aspect of it. You e made your point. I agree. You’ve made it a couple of times.

I’ve made mine. I agree on the gun issue.

Do you have anything you’d like to contribute on the mental health issue or just continually talk about guns. There are a ton of mentally ill people that don’t do what Shane did. They don’t. There are millions of people with guns that don’t do and won’t do what Shane did.

I agree with you on the gun issue and access and ownership and the whole 9 yards. Do you have anything to add on the mental health issue? Or just to comment specifically to my posts on mental illness and make your point about guns which I don’t disagree with. 

I thought what I had to say was heartfelt and having dealt with a death in the family that had both a gun and mental health issue component was important. People like Shane would find a way to kill with or without guns and I was trying to address that specifically. 

[Brisketexan 105,041]

I understand that and 100% agree.
I am just talking about mental illness in general and how it should be treated and looked at. The human aspect of it. You e made your point. I agree. You’ve made it a couple of times.
I’ve made mine. I agree on the gun issue.
Do you have anything you’d like to contribute on the mental health issue or just continually talk about guns. There are a ton of mentally ill people that don’t do what Shane did. They don’t. There are millions of people with guns that don’t do and won’t do what Shane did.
I agree with you on the gun issue and access and ownership and the whole 9 yards. Do you have anything to add on the mental health issue? Or just to comment specifically to my posts on mental illness and make your point about guns which I don’t disagree with. 

I thought what I had to say was heartfelt and having dealt with a death in the family that had both a gun and mental health issue component was important. People like Shane would find a way to kill with or without guns and I was trying to address that specifically. 

Oh, on that topic, it’s easy: nothing will happen because we the people don’t actually care about the mentally ill. The trend line for our society is at pretty close to its peak narcissism/selfishness/“all me, there is no we.” Nothing will happen because fuck them, I got mine, pull yourself up by your bootstraps, all the standard shit.
Doesn’t matter what good ideas any of us have - nothing will come of them because this society doesn’t want them to. Other people suffering isn’t something we care about.

[mchookem 16,318]

lol^ but also

 

[wood 11,225]

So no new info about this? Wow.

[wood 11,225]

New charges.

Quote

Jail records previously showed James facing two capital murder charges. Now, he is facing four capital murder charges, plus two charges for felony Aggravated Assault Against a Public Servant in connection with allegedly injuring officers with the Austin ISD Police Department and the Austin Police Department. He also faces another first-degree felony charge, but the details of that charge have not been made available.

James is scheduled to appear in court on Jan. 18, 2024. He is currently being held in the Travis County Jail without bond.

https://www.kvue.com/article/news/crime/austin-shooting-shane-james-charges/269-be4cd8a5-763f-4b6c-9a04-67d1208aedf9

IMHO it seems like AISD should be saying more about this. First police officer shot on Northeast Early College H.S. campus. Shooter resumes shooting about 1/3 from Bedichek. Shooter's whereabouts unknown for 4-5 hours before resuming activities about 3/4 mile from Bowie, on the same trail that leads directly to/from Bowie

Edited December 11, 2023 by wood

[Guest]

From all accounts, it seems that this guy didn't know the victims other than his parents? Just kills his parents, strolls up to Austin and starts wreaking havoc? Makes zero sense.

[Bevo 13,558]

1 hour ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

From all accounts, it seems that this guy didn't know the victims other than his parents? Just kills his parents, strolls up to Austin and starts wreaking havoc? Makes zero sense.

The victims in Circle C were a mother and child. How old was the child?

[wood 11,225]

7 minutes ago, Bevo said:

The victims in Circle C were a mother and child. How old was the child?

30, iirc. 

[Helobious 9,459]

6 minutes ago, Bevo said:

The victims in Circle C were a mother and child. How old was the child?

Mother was 56, daughter was 30 and had special needs of some kind. Right now all evidence is pointing towards every target of his in the Austin area being selected at random. Police have said he had no known ties to Austin. 

[Helobious 9,459]

Exact opposite of a Uvalde cop

 

[Deej 76,750]

[TKthunder2 4,985]

On 12/9/2023 at 2:34 PM, Gatorubet said:

Since the eyes will be on New Orleans for the sugar bowl this year, that usually results in the sporadic sweeps of homeless people and their tents under the I-10 overpass, as the city does not want to present itself as a place with a lot of people shitting on the sidewalk and screaming at you.

True, the city collectively cares about them on the days the temperature drops to freezing. Then their overwhelming concern kicks in - and they give them a place to stay until it warms up. Which here is a week,   Then it’s back to the normal “We don’t give a fuck about whether you live or die” mentality.

New Orleans might just leave the homeless alone this year to make the universities from Austin and Seattle feel at home.

[Nicole44 22,056]

8 hours ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

From all accounts, it seems that this guy didn't know the victims other than his parents? Just kills his parents, strolls up to Austin and starts wreaking havoc? Makes zero sense.

He may have wanted to strike schools/kids but no one really knows. I don’t think he had an arsenal. He could have stayed in San Antonio and wreaked havoc there. I don’t know if we can really “know” what was going on or what his mission was because he is mentally ill. He was doing gosh only knows what for over four hours in between the shootings in Austin. Randomly goes to a house and kicks in the door and kills two women, one with special needs. Even if he left a manifesto or some shit I don’t know why he came here at all. He could have carried out attacks in San Antonio. 
 

I was just curious where his sister lives. I mean I think her name and location should stay private but wondered if she lived in Austin and he was trying to finish her off as well. KVUE said they obtained a ring camera from a neighbor of his parents. Said on Monday night he was seen on camera ranting and pacing in front of the house. Goes back inside. Seen later early Tuesday morning leaving in a car. Comes back and parks in the driveway and goes inside for a bit and then leaves again for Austin. It’s crazy with all the CCtV cameras and other cameras they haven’t really figured out where he was though from 12:00 until 5:00 pm the day of the shootings. 

Edited December 12, 2023 by Nicole44

[fattyflattie 4,639]

On 12/9/2023 at 2:34 PM, Gatorubet said:

as the city does not want to present itself as a place with a lot of people shitting on the sidewalk and screaming at you.

*outside of French Qtr 

[Updawg 2,266]

I assume they can track his phone movements

[wood 11,225]

1 hour ago, Updawg said:

I assume they can track his phone movements

They can get at least a general area, if he had a phone, which I assume he did.  The precision varies though. Sometimes it's very good, because of a triangulation of multiple cell towers. Other times, you can only tell what was the closest tower to his location. Occasionally, not that often, you can't really get a good location.  ETA: Of course LE can probably get GPS traces after the fact. I was thinking, out of habit, more in terms of what we could do 'live' on 911 calls at CTECC.

Edited December 12, 2023 by wood

[Willfully Horn 7,995]

I see it’s thread time for the misanthropes and psychopaths to start punching down.

[Updawg 2,266]

Aisd and Apd giving a joint news update around 3 today

[Willfully Horn 7,995]

https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/austin-police-to-give-update-on-shooting-spree-case-tuesday/

[Updawg 2,266]

Been watching. Sounds like he bought the .45 caliber pistol privately in July

He stole cars from each location

No mention on where and what he was doing in between incidents

I agree that the police didn’t have enough info to link the incidents until later and they are definitely covering their ass

To me it sounds like they responded to each scene very quick. Quicker than I would have expected tbh

[Updawg 2,266]

They just said they don’t know what he was doing during the gaps and he didn’t have a phone when they caught him

Sounds like everything was random and nobody targeted

[Deej 76,750]

10 minutes ago, Updawg said:

They just said they don’t know what he was doing during the gaps

Traffic is a bitch.

[Willfully Horn 7,995]

 Cops responded to the Astral Way house within two minutes. Mother and daughter already were dead. There was a shootout outside that house, the second officer was wounded, then James fled in yet another car. But, after the crash at 45 & 1826, James immediately surrendered.

[Updawg 2,266]

As much as it sucks for the father seeing that remotely in real time that probably saved more lives. No way the cops respond that quick without that happening

[Nicole44 22,056]

16 hours ago, Updawg said:

As much as it sucks for the father seeing that remotely in real time that probably saved more lives. No way the cops respond that quick without that happening

Agreed. Another bit of information that was in presser:

“Austin police also told the press on Tuesday that officers briefly interacted with James in Austin more than five years ago. They say he had a mental health crisis at the Mosaic Church on Research Boulevard in northwest Austin in March of 2018. No one was hurt and APD took him into emergency custody, but James was not charged.”

————-

Maybe he was looking for the church and got confused since he didn’t have his phone with him? I know they have no clue why he came here. Cant find an overall agenda. It’s possible that in his crazed mind he was trying to get to a specific location or person and then it evolved into stealing random cars and killing random people. 

[sasquatch69 596]

More on the previous interactions, from KUT: 

https://www.kut.org/crime-justice/2023-12-13/alleged-texas-mass-shooter-shane-james-criminal-history-mental-illness

[Hermanator 7,031]

On 12/7/2023 at 11:39 PM, GringoSalado said:

 and I do indeed regret engaging in good faith here.

Just catching up with this one but this struck me as a really funny way to word it. 

It's just missing an "and I said good day, sir!" at the end. 

Edited December 14, 2023 by Hermanator

[wood 11,225]

nm

Edited December 18, 2023 by wood

[mchookem 16,318]

right? b/t that and Nicole seems like a lot of hints, innuendo, and 'if i told you i'd have to kill you, too' info.

[Nicole44 22,056]

2 hours ago, mchookem said:

right? b/t that and Nicole seems like a lot of hints, innuendo, and 'if i told you i'd have to kill you, too' info.

Mostly what I had heard turned out to be accurate (the victims and how they were found) and there were rumors about the parents bodies perhaps showing signs of overkill (best way I know how to put it.) some of what I read/heard wasn’t true. The mother and daughter in the final shooting were not a young mother and child. But I have heard nothing about this being a plot against the schools. The police officer shot outside the highschool was on the baseball field. I haven’t heard the shooter wasn’t anything other than batshit crazy and had no agenda. But that’s all I have heard. Just that the way the parents were found was highly disturbing. That’s all I got. No cloak and dagger here. I put my shit in spoilers.

Shooter isn’t talking at all so his arraignment should be a blast. He didn’t have his cellphone on him during his spree. Apparently stole cars from each shooting location and didn’t have an arsenal of weapons. Glad the response was as swift as it was at the highschool where the officer was shot. I think if he had a specific location in mind he couldn’t find it when he got here and ran out of gas and shot people he encountered. They still have no clue what he was doing for those five hours in between shootings. 

Edited December 17, 2023 by Nicole44

[wood 11,225]

13 hours ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

You just going to throw that out there?

 

12 hours ago, mchookem said:

right? b/t that and Nicole seems like a lot of hints, innuendo, and 'if i told you i'd have to kill you, too' info.

Sorry. Been a busy day with the vball & all.

Edit: I had put the 'info' in spoilers but on second thought, I'll just DM you both so as to keep it off the interwaves. I ain't tryna get anyone in trouble. Anyone else, PM me if you want.

Edited December 18, 2023 by wood

[zman13 178]

Bodycam footage from Astral Way:

 

[Native Horn 3,498]

that's intense

[Samson's Wig 3,189]

Damn. 

[crash_davis 23,094]

He wants to represent himself. 

https://www.kxan.com/news/crime/shooting-spree-suspect-asks-judge-if-he-can-represent-himself/

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Shane James, the suspect in a December 2023 shooting spree that spanned from Bexar County to Austin, killing six people and injuring three others, asked a judge Friday morning if he could represent himself in the case.

Following James’ hearing earlier this year, his attorney Russ Hunt said James was receiving psychiatric treatment in jail.

Judge Clifford Brown told James he has a right to represent himself, but advised him not to.

Regarding the next steps, Brown recommended James receive a mental evaluation before moving forward to determine if he is mentally competent enough to represent himself. Judge Brown said if James did not do that voluntarily, Brown would issue a court-ordered evaluation.

James is set to return to court Oct. 10.

 

[Wally Pryor 5,261]

[shadow_operative2.0 15,941]

 

 

[Herbie Hancock 7,341]

Yay! The lawyers saved another poor soul from the horrible corrupt justice system!

[Gatorubet 30,183]

1 hour ago, Herbie Hancock said:

Yay! The lawyers saved another poor soul from the horrible corrupt justice system!

 

13 hours ago, Herbie Hancock said:

I mean, you don’t have to read between the lines to see I admitted I was wrong. That said, would it make you feel better if I said the words “I was wrong”?

np.  when you’re wrong, we’ll just post this and skip some steps. 

[Helobious 9,459]

16 hours ago, Herbie Hancock said:

Yay! The lawyers saved another poor soul from the horrible corrupt justice system!

He’s now going to be spending the next few years in isolation at the travis county jail, until a bed at one of the 2 max security state mental hospitals opens up. If he’s deemed competent at any point he’ll face trial then. If not he’s staying locked up there for the rest of his life. 

[royiv 9,237]

19 hours ago, Herbie Hancock said:

Yay! The lawyers saved another poor soul from the horrible corrupt justice system!

Are you under the impression that he will be released back into the wild?

[Brisketexan 105,041]

6 minutes ago, royiv said:

Are you under the impression that he will be released back into the wild?

Yeah, this is important.  If he's been judged not competent to stand trial (that, by the way, is the system standing up for the constitutional rights that you and everyone else has - you have to be able to participate in/assist with your own defense), that does NOT mean that he is free to go.  Not even close to it.  Fundamentally, it means he stays locked up either 1) forever, or 2) until his mental condition is treated/improves enough for him to be competent to stand trial, at which time he will go to trial.

The most important thing is that dangerous people be taken off the street, and when it comes to a situation of mental incompetence like this, that's exactly what our system does.  Nothing's perfect, but honestly, that's one of the things our system gets pretty close to right.

[royiv 9,237]

1 minute ago, Brisketexan said:

Yeah, this is important.  If he's been judged not competent to stand trial (that, by the way, is the system standing up for the constitutional rights that you and everyone else has - you have to be able to participate in/assist with your own defense), that does NOT mean that he is free to go.  Not even close to it.  Fundamentally, it means he stays locked up either 1) forever, or 2) until his mental condition is treated/improves enough for him to be competent to stand trial, at which time he will go to trial.

The most important thing is that dangerous people be taken off the street, and when it comes to a situation of mental incompetence like this, that's exactly what our system does.  Nothing's perfect, but honestly, that's one of the things our system gets pretty close to right.

And to add, if I was a mentally sane person who was somehow able to be declared incompetent to stand trial I think being locked up at a state mental hospital would be more miserable than the alternative. Those places aren’t exactly luxurious and spending the rest of your days surrounded by some of the most mentally ill people in our society doesn’t feel like the win for the perp that Herbie thinks it is.

[Brisketexan 105,041]

4 minutes ago, royiv said:

and spending the rest of your days surrounded by some of the most mentally ill people in our society

Surly:

[TwiceHorn 31,433]

10 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Yeah, this is important.  If he's been judged not competent to stand trial (that, by the way, is the system standing up for the constitutional rights that you and everyone else has - you have to be able to participate in/assist with your own defense), that does NOT mean that he is free to go.  Not even close to it.  Fundamentally, it means he stays locked up either 1) forever, or 2) until his mental condition is treated/improves enough for him to be competent to stand trial, at which time he will go to trial.

The most important thing is that dangerous people be taken off the street, and when it comes to a situation of mental incompetence like this, that's exactly what our system does.  Nothing's perfect, but honestly, that's one of the things our system gets pretty close to right.

Lord knows there's plenty of Park Dietz to testify for the state that no one is incompetent or insane enough to mitigate their crime. 

[BurntEyes 5,955]

1 hour ago, Brisketexan said:

Yeah, this is important.  If he's been judged not competent to stand trial (that, by the way, is the system standing up for the constitutional rights that you and everyone else has - you have to be able to participate in/assist with your own defense), that does NOT mean that he is free to go.  Not even close to it.  Fundamentally, it means he stays locked up either 1) forever, or 2) until his mental condition is treated/improves enough for him to be competent to stand trial, at which time he will go to trial.

The most important thing is that dangerous people be taken off the street, and when it comes to a situation of mental incompetence like this, that's exactly what our system does.  Nothing's perfect, but honestly, that's one of the things our system gets pretty close to right.

Actually, it far better that someone who has true mental illness be sent to a hospital rather than prison. That person will get medication and considerably better medical treatment than they ever would in a prison. 

As you noted, unlike prison, if the faculty/medical staff don't find him mentally competent, he could stay there forever.

He's off the streets, getting, you know actual mental health care.

I personally see this as a win. I honestly wish it happened more often. 

Edited 13 hours ago by BurntEyes

[BurntEyes 5,955]

2 hours ago, royiv said:

And to add, if I was a mentally sane person who was somehow able to be declared incompetent to stand trial I think being locked up at a state mental hospital would be more miserable than the alternative. Those places aren’t exactly luxurious and spending the rest of your days surrounded by some of the most mentally ill people in our society doesn’t feel like the win for the perp that Herbie thinks it is.

I worked in a mental health hospital. Without violation of privacy I can say there was essentially a life long resident there that had committed homicide. They first sent that person to prison. There were issues in the prison, relating to mental health, and they finally sent them to a psychiatric facility. 

On meds, they were occasionally confused,  sometimes irritable, but usually extremely compliant and quiet the majority of the time.

They were very sick, had to eat state food for life, never getting out, and never had visitors. 

I know there's sometime the idea that this is an easy out, but if you've ever met or know any truly mentally sick people, it's extremely sad. 

I just hope someday this country will recognize like cancer, it's a disease. It sometimes leads to tragic consequences, but... if we were more proactive and willing to fund mental health in this US, it might be less frequent for it to escalate to tragic ends.

It ends well for nobody. I know this is an unpopular take, but I'm never changing my view on it. Go spend some time with some truly mentally ill folks before a final judgment.