Austin police release man who says he fatally shot protester

According to Fox news

A man who admitted to fatally shooting an armed Black Lives Matter protester in Austin on Saturday night was taken into custody and then released pending further investigation, the Texas city’s police chief said.

Chief Brian Manley said detectives assigned to the homicide unit detained the man and interviewed him after he called 911 shortly after the shooting. The man said he had shot someone who approached his vehicle during the demonstration and pointed a weapon at him.

The victim of the shooting was Garrett Foster, 28, and he died of multiple gunshot wounds.

“We are heartbroken over the loss of Mr. Foster last night,” Manley said in a Zoom news conference Sunday night posted on Twitter. “It’s actively being investigated and ongoing in conjunction with the Travis County District Attorney’s Office.”

The chief said after the vehicle turned into a crowd of protesters and was honking its horn, witnesses observed Foster holding an AK-47-type assault rifle and approach the driver’s side window as some protesters pounded on the vehicle.

After the gunfire, another person with a gun opened fire on the vehicle as it sped away, Manley said.

He said that person was detained and released after being interviewed by homicide detectives.

Officers assigned to the protest responded after they heard the two volleys of gunfire, he said.

The shooting was caught on video and Manley made a public appeal for more video and photographs. The chief wouldn’t say why the vehicle turned into the protesters, saying it was part of the investigation.

Foster went to Saturday’s protest with his fiancée, Whitney Mitchell, a 28-year-old quadruple amputee who uses a wheelchair, the Dallas Morning News reported.

Her mother told the paper she worried about them attending the protests sparked by the death of George Floyd in police custody.

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