Houston man arrested after shots fired at TX Capitol
AUSTIN, TX
Nobody was wounded in the shooting, department spokesman Tom
Vinger said. Authorities arrested Fausto Cardenas, 24, who faces
felony charges of deadly conduct and was being held in the Travis
County Jail, the department said.
The shots rang out just after noon, and officers with rifles
quickly swarmed the scene. More than a half dozen Department of
Public Safety cars quickly appeared, and troopers quickly
surrounded the building.
"I thought he was shooting at the birds. I ran," said Veronica
Briseno, a tourist from Mexico who said she saw the shooter fire
his weapon into the air.
Jill Magid, an artist from New York City, said she was just
inside the front doors of the Capitol when the shots were fired.
She ran out the doors in time to see troopers holding a man down on
the ground.
"They were all over him," Magid said. "I could hear him
saying 'my hands are up."'
Many lawmakers were away from Austin because the legislature was
not in session, and Gov. Rick Perry was not in the building at the
time, his office said. Perry commended the troopers who responded
to the shooting.
"Thanks to their efforts no one was injured and the shooter was
apprehended immediately and taken in to custody," Perry said in a
statement.
Some lawmakers were inside the Capitol including House Speaker
Joe Straus, whose office said he was stuck in the building while it
was on lockdown. Republican Sen. Dan Patrick said on his Twitter
page that he wasn't in his office but his staff called security.
"An individual came into my Austin Senate office today acting
strangely, staff called security, moments later shots fired on
Capitol steps," he wrote.
Patrick's chief-of-staff, Logan Spence, described the man as a
"shy, nervous guy" who raised suspicions after asking to meet
with one of the senator's female aides. Spence said the suspect had
apparently spotted the aide in the hallway before entering
Patrick's office.
Authorities had located a car linked to the suspect on the west
side of the Capitol but said late Thursday they had not yet
established a motive for the shooting. Investigators were still on
the scene as evening approached, though people with legitimate
business at the Capitol were being allowed in.
Lorne Kozak, of Edmonton, Alberta in Canada, was visiting the
Capitol grounds with his 10-year-old son Spencer when they heard
gunfire. He said they were about 30 yards from the steps when the
shots rang out.
"What I heard was four rifle shots," Kozak said. "There
appeared to be a cluster of officers attending to someone on the
steps and more officers kept pouring out of the building and of
course the sirens."
They snapped a few quick pictures before walking away when
police told them to leave.