Austin Police Officer Saves Lives Even When Not on Duty

Just because a police officer is out of his official uniform and outside of his jurisdiction doesn’t mean that the mindset and training of a law enforcement officer just get tossed out the window. They will still remember the tools taught to them in training and will also have their beating heart scream at them to stop injustices in the world. That’s exactly what happened last Thursday night in Marble Falls.

The incident occurred at around 10:00 pm on Thursday night when the officer was driving back to his Austin home. As he was driving, the officer happened upon a nearly deadly case of road rage when he witnessed someone armed with a firearm standing next to an automobile and shooting into it.

Seeing this occur, the officer had a choice before him, ignore it and call the uniformed police or pull out his own weapon and attempt to stop the madman himself. It’s pretty obvious which he chose.

A shootout then commenced between the off-duty officer and the suspect which saw several shots fired between the two and ended with the suspect unconscious in a ditch. The officer was not hurt in the shootout but the suspect would later need to be sent to the hospital for his injuries, which after treatment do not appear to be life-threatening.

As for the family that the suspect was originally targeting, the three escaped injury because of the officer’s quick actions and their ability to escape from the car during the shootout. According to police reports, they were targeted by the suspect and were rammed from behind with his truck before the shootout began. It has not been reported what sparked the initial road rage, but it is clear that this man will be in jail for a long time for his actions.

And as for the cop and family, I believe Austin Police Department interim police Chief Brian Manley said it best.

“As a police officer, even when you’re off duty — you may be on duty, and that’s why you always have to be aware, to pay attention and you have to be prepared to take action. From what I understand the facts to be, our detective saved lives last night.”

So once again we see that training and an armed citizen equals the stopping of a tragedy by the hands of a criminal. If you are interested in reading about how to survive situations such as this, make sure you take a look at our FREE E-Book “Survive Anything” for tips and tricks of how best to defend yourself.