City of Austin
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASERelease Date:
Contact: APD Public Information Office 512-974-5017 Email
Case: 22-1460210
Date: May 26, 2022
Time: Approximately 4:55 a.m.
Location: 1500 Crossing Place
Suspect: Robert Hammitt, white male, 48 years of age
The Austin Police Department (APD) continues to investigate the officer-involved shooting that occurred during the early morning hours of Thursday, May 26, 2022.
At approximately 4:55 a.m., Austin 9-1-1 Communications received a call regarding a man with a gun in the area of Faro Dr. and Crossing Place. The caller identified himself as Robert Hammitt and stated a man was pointing a gun at him. Hammitt provided additional details to the dispatcher, stating a white male, wearing tan clothing, was holding a rifle inside of a black Ford F-150 truck at 1500 Crossing Place. Multiple officers arrived at 1500 Crossing Place and located a man and a truck that matched the description in the 9-1-1 call. The man in the Ford F-150 truck was later positively identified as Robert Hammitt.
Officers exited their marked police vehicles and approached the truck on foot. Two officers made verbal contact with Hammitt, who was seated inside of the truck, on the driver’s side. Officers began to issue instructions to Hammitt to leave his hands outside of the truck window and to exit the truck. Within seconds of the truck door opening, Hammitt began to fire shots in the direction of the officers. The officers ran for cover and returned fire in the direction of the truck. The officers returned fire from their APD-approved firearms. The officers remained behind cover and told Hammitt to show his hands and stop moving. Officers identified themselves as Austin Police and continued to provide instructions to Hammitt. For several minutes, officers told Hammitt to exit the truck in order to help him and provide medical aid. Hammitt did not respond to the instructions.
Officers approached the truck and were able to remove Hammitt from inside of the vehicle. Once the officers checked to make sure Hammitt did not have a weapon on his person, they began life-saving measures. Two minutes later, Austin-Travis County EMS arrived on scene and continued with life-saving measures. Hammitt succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced deceased on scene at 5:37 a.m. No civilians or officers on scene sustained physical injuries.
A firearm was recovered inside of the truck where Hammitt was seated, on the driver’s side floorboard.
This incident was captured on body-worn camera and dash camera video. A total of five APD officers were involved in this incident. Per APD protocol, the five officers have been placed on administrative leave. Two of the officers involved are field-training officers; one field-training officer has seven and a half years of service, and the other field-training officer has five years of service with the Department. A third officer involved has four and half years of service with the department. Finally, two of the officers involved were in a training capacity, having recently graduated from the APD Training Academy in January, 2022. APD will conduct two concurrent investigations into this incident: a criminal investigation by the APD Special Investigations Unit in conjunction with the Travis County District Attorney's Office, and an administrative investigation conducted by the APD Internal Affairs Unit, with oversight from the Office of Police Oversight.
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 512-472-TIPS, or use the new Crime Stoppers App.