Posted on 10/28/2021 11:53:24 AM PDT by Enlightened1
An attempt by Austin, Texas, officials to serve a search warrant and provide lawn care resulted in shots fired, an hourslong standoff, a house fire and a death, police said Wednesday.
Police officers and code enforcement officers arrived at a home at 9:16 a.m. to serve a nuisance search warrant, but could not make contact with the resident, Austin Police Chief Joseph Chacon said at an evening news conference.
The warrant was left at the door and contractors for the city's code enforcement began working on the lawn. About an hour later, the resident started shooting from inside the house, Chacon said.
"And they immediately backed off. They got all of the staff that was working on the house to safety and and a SWAT call was initiated for a barricaded subject," he said.
SWAT, mental health officers and a crisis negotiator arrived on scene, but could not get the man out of the home, leading to the lockdown of a nearby elementary school and the closure of several streets.
"SWAT spent the next several hours trying to negotiate with the individual to just simply come out of the house," Chacon said.
At about 3 p.m., the resident started shooting at officers again. "And because of that immediate threat ... they made entry using a robot," Chacon said.
The robot helped officers determine that a fire had been started in the home, and was quickly spreading, he said. Officers still couldn't get the man to come out of the house as it became fully engulfed in flames.
But then the man exited through the garage with weapons in his hand. "At that time, a SWAT officer shot and struck the resident who went down with a gunshot wound," Chacon said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
“City Code Enforcement” folks...not HOA
“with a burned out hulk of a house on it.”
The city will just seize the property, clean it up, and sell it to the mayor’s son-in-law for $1.
That's ridiculous. SWAT was called because he was shooting at people from inside his house. If he wanted long weeds and brush in his yard, he should have bought a house with no HOA, and preferably no neighbors. But he bought in an HOA neighborhood, with all the rules and obligations that come with them. And they were not trespassing, they had a warrant.
I live in an area without HOA's. No one can tell me where I can park my boat and trailer, when to cut my lawn, or what color I can paint my house. With rare exceptions everyone keeps their yards neat anyway. If a neighbor has a problem and can't keep their yard up, I'll drop by with my mower and help out. It sounds like this guy was way beyond neighborly help. He was insane.
On the plus side, they've gotten rid of their troublesome neighbor. Someone else will buy the lot, build a home on it, and hopefully mow their lawn.
As wrong as I think the city getting involved in an HOA problem, the guy was shooting at people from inside his house. That changed the dynamics of the situation. I highly doubt that at that point in time anyone would have died had he not shot at people. I find it a bit disturbing that this far down in the thread (#48), no one has commented on the craziness of escalating such a mundane incident to the point that he was willing to kill someone for mowing his grass when he didn't want to do it himself.
Free people have a responsibility, too. Fault in this incident lies on everyone's shoulders, not just the city and LEO.
People do not own their own homes. They are merely caretakers who pay for the privilege of caring for property for the government. Home ownership is a myth.
... who was trespassing because some petty tyrant a-hole didn't like his landscaping.
Remember when we used to take our property Rights seriously? Those were good days...
That’s why when I was looking for a house to buy, I asked the realtor in my town to research what streets did —NOT— have an HOA, and to show me only those.
If you don’t cut your lawn, your house will burn and you will be shot.
Seems fair. Socialbworkers work.
I bet you support red flag laws too. After all, "they had a warrant"...
Free people have a right to be LEFT ALONE and not have some NIMBY come along and tell them how to live with government guns backing them up.
That’s why I say, “if true”. The article says the city code enforcement was trying to bring them into compliance with HOA rules, which doesn’t sound right or accurate. Journalists are incompetent these days.
Just saying that if true, it could be a cause for lawsuit.
# Another Carl Drega maybe?
Could be. We’ll likely never know. It’s apparent the guy needed some range time.
Who owns anything fee simple these days?
The bank, the HOA, the city are your landlords. Homeownership is glorified tenancy.
# It does not matter what the order from the Government may be. If you refuse a Government order, and escalate that refusal vigorously enough, the agents of the Government will eventually resort to lethal force.
Yup. Every single government rule, regulation, or edict is backed by the promise to kill you if you resist.
I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that in this case the homeowner was probably shooting at the wrong targets.
I am not arguing that fact. I give the guy props. He stood up and fought back; unmown grass seems like a pretty strange hill to die on from where I sit. Anyone saying that the government was going to kill him because of the unmown grass (which people have on this thread) is an idiot and is totally excusing the craziness of him shooting at people because they were mowing his grass.
If that's what passes for taking a stand for freedom, our side is just as screwed up as the petty tyrants we face.
One thing led directly to another. So the statement above is still true. You don't have to like it, but that is literally what happened.
We don't know any other details. None. We don't know what kind of fight led up to this, what this guy was going through prior, if there were in fact mental health issues, etc...
Maybe he just liked tall grass or was going for the "natural landscaping" look. Whatever else was going on, the GOVERNMENT got involved and now the guy is dead.
They had a legal right to be there according to city law.
Police officers and code enforcement officers arrived at a home at 9:16 a.m. to serve a nuisance search warrant, but could not make contact with the resident
Btw, instead of showing up with the full force of local government, the mental health folks should have contacted the decedent first and had a conversation with him before any of this developed into what now looks like a GD war zone.
And the mental health folks stand up and wave...Hey...talk to me first..Not how it works....and in fact...with a gun in use...they shouldn’t even be there.
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