The gunman who killed a Texas SWAT officer was armed with a rifle, was wearing body armor and barricaded in a bedroom, according to a search warrant that revealed authorities also believed he might have been making bombs.
Ahmed Mohamed Nassar, 35, was identified as the shooter Wednesday, by the Austin Police Department Wednesday afternoon.
‘Cutting instruments, body armor, and any tactical gear to include firearms were all said to be worn or used by the suspect,’ the search warrant obtained by Austin TV station KXAN states.
Officers were called to the home November 11 just before 3 a.m. when a woman who managed to escape the house called 911 ‘screaming for help’ and sharing she had been stabbed and that two others were still trapped inside.
The first officers to arrive at the home were shot at, and they requested SWAT be called in.
Senior Officer Jorge Pastore, who’d been with the Austin Police Department for three years and decided to become a cop after serving as a paramedic in the Parkland school shooting in Florida, was killed in the rampage.
Senior patrol officer Jorge Pastore was killed Saturday in Austin, Texas while responding to a deadly hostage situation
Cops were called to the home November 11 just before 3 a.m. when a woman who managed to escape the house called 911 ‘screaming for help’
The woman claimed she had been stabbed and that two others were still trapped inside, who were later found dead
When SWAT members arrived, they went inside the home where Nassar was holed up in a bedroom.
After breaching the bedroom door, Nassar began shooting, killing Pastore and wounding a second officer, the cops say.
The gunman was killed by three members of SWAT who returned fire.
Two other victims, Nassar’s brother and mother, were found in the house.
They were identified as Eyman Ahmed El Nemr-Nassar, 63, and Riad Mohamed Nassar, 32, by members of Austin’s Islamic community.
A candlelight vigil was held at City Hall in downtown Austin to honor Pastore, who was killed in an officer-involved shooting on November 11
Police warrant reveals cutting instruments, body armor, and tactical gear including firearms were found in the home
Residents of the neighborhood where the shooting happened told CBS Austin FBI agents have been speaking to neighbors about the family involved in the hostage situation
The DailyMail.com exclusively revealed that the FBI had previously visited the home before Saturday’s hostage situation took place and that the suspect was on the terror watch list.
Five people associated with the home were named in the search warrant as ‘suspected parties.’
Neither their names or roles in the incident were included in the document.
‘It is not uncommon for people with gun, body armor, or night vision to make homemade explosives,’ the warrant reads.
Investigators listed the following as items they were looking for:
- Body armor and protective plates to include ballistic helmets as well as arm or leg protection
- Night vision goggles
- Firearms and ammunition
- Targets that have been shot by a firearm
- Explosive devices or bomb-making materials
The search warrant did not include what a search at the home yielded.
Austin Police Department officers prepare to ride in a procession leaving Dell Seton Medical Center in Downtown Austin following the shooting death of a police officer early on Saturday
Members of the Austin Fire Department bow their heads as they prepare to drive in a procession for the fallen officer
Pastore, who is survived by his wife and two step-children, will be buried Friday. The police department is planning to honor the elite cop with a procession through the streets of Austin starting at 7am, followed by a funeral service.
‘He embodied the very best of this profession and of this department– that your job and your role is to be able to fight for other people no matter what the danger may be,’ Michael Bullock, president-elect of the police officers’ association said.
‘To show up to that scene, to know that other officers had already been shot at and that someone is actively seeking to harm and kill other people…with no hesitation, to go through and try to face that evil. That’s the most honorable way that anyone in this profession can probably go.’