Texas police take down man firing shots at capitol building

Bob Hubbard

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Texas police take down man firing shots at capitol building
The state troopers tackled him before anyone was hurt

Editor’s note: This is a stellar response to an active shooter situation. Congratulations to the officers who were involved. It’s obvious they were well trained and fully prepared to respond to such an incident in an extremely rapid and coordinated fashion. According to news reports, the gunman was in custody within one minute – yes, one minute – after firing rounds. It doesn’t get much better than that! Nice work, officers!
AUSTIN — A man fired several shots into the air Thursday while standing on the Texas Capitol's south steps before throwing down his handgun as state troopers closed in and tackled him, the Texas Department of Public Safety said.

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.

...

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.

I wonder....was the guy surprised there were cops there at the, you know, capital? All the articles I saw so far applaud the Troopers for their quick and safe response.
 

grydth

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With all the things we see about allegedly bad police officers, ask yourself this: How would you like to have to respond to this call?

Nice job - - - and thanks to all of you out there doing this!
 
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Bob Hubbard

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I see man with gun firing at random. I go other way as fast as humanly and safely possible.
Then I change my shorts.
 

Carol

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Makes me wonder if the guy was trying for a "suicide by cop"

That's pretty messed up.
 

Archangel M

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Tackling an armed man? Points for guts and a good outcome, but I think my solution would have been a bit more "leaded".
 

Jenny_in_Chico

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I love Texas State Troopers. All of them are polite and respectful, and most of them are damn good looking, to boot.
 

Sukerkin

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The story smacks of a failed 'political point making' attempt to me. The chap fired into the air (not at the building or anyone) and chucked his gun down as soon as police showed up. Or maybe he just wanted to get arrested?
 

grydth

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The story smacks of a failed 'political point making' attempt to me. The chap fired into the air (not at the building or anyone) and chucked his gun down as soon as police showed up. Or maybe he just wanted to get arrested?

Quite possibly true. But the police who get called don't know that. They just get told 'man firing weapon at capital'..... takes a lot of courage to run towatds something like that. Also, this guy is committing a fundamentally irrational act to begin with. Who's to say once he starts shooting he doesn't decide to take out some legislators?
 

MJS

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According to the article, he threw the gun he was holding, down, which is why they probably opted to tackle him rather than shoot. However, given the fact that at the time, they probably didn't know about any other weapons, and given the fact that he was armed, I'm surprised that he wasn't shot.

Good job to those involved. :)
 
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Bob Hubbard

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That was Texas....I'm surprised he wasn't shot period.
 

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