Austin police issued an austin pd alert to 51,789 people in South Austin on Wednesday while searching for a suspect they described as “dangerous and violent.” About 10 minutes after the order went out, police lifted the shelter-in-place instruction and said the subject had fled the area.
The alert reached residents within a one-mile radius of Willow Springs Road and Industrial Boulevard. Police told the public to stay inside, lock doors and call 911 if they saw the suspect.
South Austin residents react
Chris Bataska received the message at his office on Barton Springs Road and first thought it was a phishing attempt. “We’ve had a lot of phishing attempts at the company so my first thought was to email it to IT because it looked like a different link than normal,” he said. “It just created some skepticism.”
John Stolz said he was “slightly confused and a little caught off guard” when the alert arrived. “It seemed really spammy,” he said, adding that “It would have been better if it was more clear who [it] was coming from, and it would have been extremely good to know what neighborhoods are affected.”
APD alert wording
The message arrived in all caps and included a link that said “please click here to acknowledge receipt of this message.” Austin police said the person at large was a muscular Black man in his mid-30s wearing a white shirt and a white hat with a red brim, and said the suspect was near the St. Elmo neighborhood.
About 30 minutes after the alert was sent, police said on X that it was real. The department also said it had minor involvement in the incident and was assisting the Texas Department of Public Safety and the FBI with the operation.
FBI custody update
When police lifted the shelter order, they wrote: “after an extensive search it is believed the subject has fled the area.” The FBI later said the suspect is now in custody, leaving the alert as a short-lived but wide-reaching notice for thousands of South Austin residents.
