17-year-old suspect arrested in Austin mass shooting that left 1 dead, 13 injured
A 17-year-old high school student has been arrested and identified as the second suspect in a weekend mass shooting in an entertainment district in Austin that left one tourist dead and 13 others injured, police said.
Austin Police Department officials said the suspect was arrested on Monday at a high school in Killeen, Texas, about 70 miles north of Austin. Authorities said the Killeen Intermediate School District police helped Austin officers take the teenage suspect, who was attending summer classes, into custody.
The teenager was booked on suspicion of aggravated assault. Police expect prosecutors to charge him as an adult and that more charges, including murder, are likely to be filed against him and a minor under the age of 17 who was arrested shortly after the shooting on Saturday, officials said.
Austin Interim Police Chief Joseph Chacon said both suspects allegedly opened fire when a dispute broke out on the street between two groups of people.
Chacon said most of those shot were innocent bystanders.
One of the shooting victims, 25-year-old Doug Kantor, who was shot in the abdomen while waiting outside a bar, died from his injuries on Sunday. He was vacationing in Austin.
Kantor, who was originally from Airmont, New York, recently earned a master's degree in business from Michigan State University and was working as a product manager in the information technology department at the Ford Motor Company, his brother, Nick Kantor, said in a statement.
Nick Kantor said his brother, who also earned a bachelor's degree in computer science from Michigan State, had purchased his first home and was looking forward to marrying his high school sweetheart.
"He was loved by all who knew him and had an infectious smile that would light up any room," Nick Kantor's statement read. "This senseless tragedy has put an end to all his dreams."
The shooting erupted about 1:30 a.m. as Austin's West Sixth Street entertainment district was teeming with people out for the weekend. The barrage of gunfire caused a chaotic scene with people running and diving for cover, authorities said.
The mass shooting was one of four that occurred across the country over the weekend in less than six hours. Between 9 p.m. on Friday and 2:30 a.m. Saturday, mass shootings also erupted in Savannah, Cleveland and Chicago, leaving a total of 38 people shot, six fatally.
On Sunday afternoon, a shooting at a race track in West Salem, Ohio, left a 33-year-old man dead and five people injured. The Wayne County Sheriff's Office said the gunman, who witnesses said was intoxicated, opened fire after driving recklessly in the parking lot of the race track.
The suspect fled the scene and law enforcement officers continued to search for him on Tuesday.
On Tuesday morning, Chicago police were investigating the city's second mass shooting in four days when four people were killed and four were wounded at a home in the city's Englewood neighborhood.
