WATCH: Bodycam video shows Arlington police shoot man who fired on officer during pursuit
A man shot by police in Arlington last month fired at least one round at an officer while fleeing before he was wounded while hiding with a gun under a vehicle, newly released body- and dashboard-camera video shows.
The video, compiled from several different officers’ body-worn cameras and those in their patrol vehicles, shows Austin Taylor, 20, was taken to the hospital after the shooting for non-life-threatening wounds. Police said officers rendered aid to him after they were able to place him in handcuffs.
In the video footage, at least two officers can be seen firing weapons at Taylor more than two dozen times, with one shooting a handgun and the other a rifle.
The shooting came after police were called to a home on Shady Valley Drive just before 10 a.m. May 20. Taylor’s parents called because they’d gotten into an argument with him over drug use, police said.
When officers arrived at the family’s home, Taylor was gone. They found him a short time later on a nearby street. They offered to give him a ride back to his parents’ house and he initially accepted, but when officers asked to pat him down for weapons, he ran.
Police said they didn’t have any cause to detain or arrest him at that time, so they did not pursue. Shortly afterward, Taylor is accused of trying to rob a couple at gunpoint, firing a gun in his parents’ house and then stealing their truck and fleeing police, at one point firing at an officer.
Family called police with concerns
The video starts with Taylor walking up to a police car and one of two officers at the scene telling him he isn’t under arrest or being detained.
When one officer asked to pat Taylor down before allowing him in the patrol car, Taylor spread his legs a little and looked as if he were starting to lean forward as if he were putting his hands on the vehicle.. Then he took off running.
It appeared one officer tried to grab Taylor, but neither pursued him.
“Subject took off on foot,” the officer told dispatchers over police radio. “I’ve got no reason to detain him. He’s not a danger to anyone.”
Officers went back to Taylor’s home and told his family what happened.
“He’s very agitated,” one officer told Taylor’s mother.
“If you see him, I want you to try,” she responds.
“Oh, I will,” the officer assures her. “No problem.”
As the officer is assuring the mother he will try to bring Taylor home if he sees him again, a call comes in over his radio that a man nearby just tried to rob someone with a gun.
“Suspect ran through the back yard, possibly holding a gun in their hand,” a dispatcher says as the officer tells the mother, “No problem.”
“Asked the complainant’s husband for $2,000 and then ran away toward Pioneer matching the description of your subject,” the dispatcher says. “There was no injury.”
The mother starts to ask the officer a question, but he asks her to “hold on” so he can listen as more details continue coming in.
“He’s not safe,” the mother tells the officer.
The officer tells the mother they’re going to pick him up as that portion of the video ends.
Suspect steals vehicle, fires gun
The next scene, also from body camera, shows the officer in his vehicle as a dispatcher informs officers that a new call has come in. It’s from Taylor’s family’s house, where police said he fired a gun. The dispatcher tells them he is trying to steal a family car. The officer takes off, quickly turning his vehicle around and heading back to the house.
The video jumps again, this time to the officer out of the vehicle and walking toward the back, where he tells dispatchers he sees Taylor heading.
“Austin, get on the ground,” the officer calls out.
He starts running toward where he sees Taylor. He notices Taylor is getting into a black truck and calls it in.
“How the [expletive] did you get the truck keys?” someone who sounds like his mother calls out.
“Austin, get out of the truck,” the officer yells at the same time, waling toward the vehicle.
The person who sounds like his mother walks toward the truck calling out to him. The person cannot be identified because they are blurred out in the video released by police.
“Get back, he’s got a gun,” the officer orders her, stepping behind a red car and drawing his own service weapon.
The officer continues ordering Taylor to get out of the truck and the other person to get back. He moves around the red car as the truck backs out of the driveway. He reads the license plate to dispatchers as the truck backs away. He describes the truck as sirens begin to sound nearby.
The officer then turns and runs back to his own vehicle, warning others over the radio as he runs that Taylor has a gun.
Officers begin pursuit
The video cuts to that of another officer in a patrol vehicle, using someone’s U-shaped driveway to turn around and chase the black truck as it makes a turn. Shortly after, it cuts to dashcam footage from another officer parked to block the road as Taylor speeds toward a patrol vehicle. When he is about two houses away, a gunshot can be heard. Police said Taylor fired at the officer who was blocking the road.
Police slowed the video, then took a still from it to show a hole in the windshield from the gunshot that was fired. The black truck manages to get around the vehicle, but crashes afterward.
Another video from the same officer, this time body camera, shows the officer grab a rifle from his patrol vehicle as the call comes out that Taylor is armed. The officer walks around behind his vehicle and takes cover at the right rear quarter panel. He calls out to someone off-camera to get back as the sound of another officer’s siren grows closer.
The officer starts running toward homes shortly before a “whiz-snap” is heard, the shot that was fired. He announces over his radio, “Shots fired,” as he takes concealment behind a bush. The sound of the truck’s crash echoes in the video.
“He just wrecked out, he just wrecked out,” the officer informs dispatch and other police.
Two more patrol vehicles come down the street, lights flashing and sirens whining, as the officer moves around the bush and runs toward the crash, still calling out that shots were fired.
Black and white dashcam video with no sound, due to the patrol vehicle being an older model, shows Taylor get out of the crashed truck and start running, carrying a gun in his left hand and a backpack in his right as his pants fall down.
A fifth officer’s body-camera footage shows him running after Taylor, telling another officer to go another direction and asking where the suspect is. Someone tells the officer he is in the driveway of a home. The officer moves slowly to peek behind a fence that blocks the driveway that runs into the home’s back yard, his handgun trained ahead.
Two officers fire shots, wounding suspect
There in the yard, under a carport, the officer can see a blue pickup truck. The officer calls out that he sees Taylor, that he thinks he’s jumping over the fence. He yells out to get down, then fires four shots. He pauses, moves farther to the left and out into the open, then fires five more rounds.
“Get down,” the officer barks to Taylor.
He fires three more rounds. Another officer asks where Taylor is and the officer whose body camera is shown tells them Taylor is under the truck and has a gun. Taylor is not visible in the video, but may have been visible to officers due to the difference in lighting between the footage and what officers may have seen.
Another officer with a rifle approaches and begins firing. He lets off 15 or 16 rounds.
Someone, apparently Taylor, shouts out at officers to stop before saying something unintelligible in the video.
“Show me your hands now,” the officer with the handgun screams. “Crawl out from beneath the truck or we will fire again. Crawl!”
Another officer calls for a shield as the one with the handgun pants, trying to catch his breath. Officers shout at Taylor repeatedly to crawl out and put both his hands where they can see them. For a few seconds, they yell at each other that they can only see his right hand, then shout at Taylor to put both hands out where they can see them. They threaten to shoot him if he doesn’t.
“You better come out real slow,” the officer with the handgun shouts as Taylor starts crawling out from under the truck. He still hasn’t shown officers his other hand. When the other hand comes out where officers can see it, the officer with the handgun approaches as he announces he’s moving forward.
When officers got to Taylor, they see he has been shot three times. They roll him over on his stomach and place him in cuffs and one officer appears to begin administering aid while others search for the gun. They find it on the other side of the truck.
After Taylor was released from the hospital, he was booked into the Tarrant County Jail. He’s charged with one count of aggravated assault on a public servant, one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, two counts of aggravated assault/family violence, and one count of evading arrest.
Criminal and administrative investigations of the shooting are ongoing, Arlington police said.
This story was originally published June 4, 2024 at 2:57 PM.