Saturday evening saw three adults and one child killed and another child injured in a shooting incident at an apartment complex in the small town of Bastrop, Texas.
Bastrop is a town of approximately 7,500 residents located around 35 miles southeast of the Texas state capitol.
According to Bastrop police, a man, two women and a child were killed by the shooter, and a second child was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Police also added that the shooter is dead, and there is no longer a threat to the general public.
Getting our first images of the crime scene after a multi fatality shooting in #Bastrop . https://t.co/8RTfSs9XSi pic.twitter.com/siAo8KYBYt
— keyetv (@keyetv) July 24, 2016
Police spokeswoman Vicky Steffanic declined to say how the shooter died and added that the identities of the victims will not be released until their next of kin have been notified. So far there is no information on the shooter’s identity or the motive for the shooting incident.
The incident reportedly took place at around 6 p.m. local time at the Arbors of Bastrop Apartments located at 202 Childers Drive. Steffanic said that the police received a call about the attack at 6:13 p.m. on Saturday evening.
Martha lives near #Bastrop shooter. She said bullet holes came through her walls, took cover to call police @keyetv pic.twitter.com/uCXhC4naGY
— Jordan Bontke (@JBontkeKEYE) July 24, 2016
According to one resident, Marta Hernandez, speaking to Fox7 Austin , she heard the shots as the shooting incident unfolded.
“I heard the shots. I heard three shots go through my apartment. One has broken my window and the other one has broken the wall and the door,” Hernandez said.
#BREAKING Police say four to five people have died in Texas after a gunman opened fire. https://t.co/JTzW6KAp6d
— WPEC CBS12 News (@CBS12) July 24, 2016
Hernandez added that on hearing the shots , she and her daughter ran and hid in their bathroom and immediately called 911.
When Hernandez finally crept out and looked through her window, she said she saw her neighbors lying dead on the grass. Hernandez also caught a glimpse of the shooter, but said she did not recognize him.
While the investigation continued, residents said they were not being allowed to enter or leave the complex. However residents were reportedly allowed back into their apartments shortly before 10 p.m. Saturday night.
According to a report by Business News 24 , a joint investigation involving the Bastrop County Sheriff’s Office, Bastrop Police Department and the Texas Rangers is still ongoing.
UPDATE:
The City of Bastrop Police Department has since released the following identities for the victims of the shooting. They are Alejandro Martinez, 20, Erica Rodriguez, 21, and Paulo Nino, 20, all of Bastrop, Texas.The fourth victim was an unnamed three-year-old male.
For Immediate Release: PRESS RELEASE pic.twitter.com/CYs3cEgdaH
— City of BastropTX PD (@BastropPD) July 24, 2016
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Bastrop has been in the news before
The small town was in the news on the Inquisitr a year ago, when residents were expecting the Obama Administration to launch a major military operation on their community and the surrounding area.
The town residents were concerned as reportedly the operation, dubbed “Jade Helm 15,” had been on the books for some time and conspiracy theorists were going to town on the story.
In spring last year, Lt. Col. Mark Lastoria explained to residents that the operation was “intended to simulate U.S. Special Forces helping resistance fighters restore democracy in an imaginary country,” but conspiracy theorists still believed it was some kind of military coup on their small town.
In a further Inquisitr report, some of the local residents had a little lighthearted fun and a dig at the conspiracy theorists by walking through the Main Street Shopping District, wearing aluminum caps.
[Photo via Flickr by Karl Thornton, cropped and resized/ CC BY-ND-2.0 ]
