Case: 23-3390551  
Date: Tuesday, December 5, 2023  
Time: 10:43 a.m.  
Location: 7200 block of Berkman Drive  
Victim: AISD PD Officer  

Case: 23-3390632  
Date: Tuesday, December 5, 2023  
Time: 11:59 a.m.  
Location: 7300 block of Shadywood Drive  
Victim (deceased): Emmanuel Pop Ba, Hispanic male, 24/12/1990   
Victim (deceased): Sabrina Rahman, Middle Eastern female, 29/12/1998  

Case: 23-3391051  
Date: Tuesday, December 5, 2023  
Time: 5:47 p.m.  
Location: 5701 West Slaughter Lane  
Victim: White Male, 39 years of age 

Case: 23-3391146  
Date: Tuesday, December 5, 2023  
Time: 6:48 p.m.  
Location: 5300 block of Austral Loop  
Victim: APD Officer   
Victim (deceased): (Information will be released as part of Critical Incident 10-day process)  
Victim (deceased): (Information will be released as part of Critical Incident 10-day process)  

Suspect (arrested): Shane James, White male, 34 years of age  

The Austin Police Department (APD) continues to investigate multiple incidents that occurred on Tuesday, December 5, 2023.   

At approximately 10:43 a.m., Austin Police Department (APD) officers responded to an Officer Needs Assistance call in the 7200 block of Berkman Drive. Multiple law enforcement agencies responded to the scene and located an Austin Independent School District Police Department (AISD PD) officer that had been shot. AISD officials provided a briefing regarding the incident. APD has no new additional information to share at this time.  

At approximately 11:59 a.m., Austin Police Department (APD) officers responded to reports of a shooting in the 7300 block of Shadywood Drive. Officers arrived at the scene and located two victims with gunshot wounds, Emmanuel Pop Ba and Sabrina Rahman. Pop Ba was pronounced deceased on scene. Rahman was transported to a local hospital, where she later died. A press release relating to these homicides will be shared separately.  

At approximately 5:47 p.m., Austin Police Department (APD) officers responded to a call reporting a shooting at 5701 West Slaughter Lane. The call involved a cyclist that had been shot. The victim was taken to a local hospital by Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services (A/TCEMS) with non-life-threatening injuries. The victim has since been released and is recovering from their injuries.  

At approximately 6:48 p.m., Austin 9-1-1 received a call reporting a Burglary of a Residence in the 5300 block of Austral Loop. Officers responded to the location and encountered a male suspect in the backyard of the residence. The male suspect, later identified as Shane James, immediately fired several gunshots at the officer. The officer returned fire in the direction of James. The officer suffered from multiple gunshot wounds and moved to find cover. James was not struck by gunfire during this incident. Two victims were located inside the residence with fatal injuries and were pronounced deceased on the scene. The APD Officer was taken to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The officer has since been released and is recovering from his injuries.  

Because this was an Officer-Involved Shooting, information relating to this case will be released within 10 business days as part of our Critical Incident Briefing public release.   

Shane James was arrested and transported to Travis County Jail and is charged with Capital Murder. He was also booked in for an outstanding Assault with injury family violence warrant. Further charges are anticipated.  

The Department would like to address the concerns our community has about early notification and if the suspect information could have been shared earlier. The incident that occurred at the Northeast Early College High School was led by AISD PD with APD assisting. We worked closely with AISD to gather the information they had. Shortly after this  incident happened, another incident took place in a different area of Austin that involved a double homicide. At that point in time, we focused on the new shooting incident as we would any normal homicide. Based off the preliminary information that was collected at both scenes, there was no immediate indication that led us to believe the two incidents were connected, but we did not dismiss the possibility. As our investigators continued to review evidence from both scenes, it was determined that the two incidents could potentially be linked. As the team continued to work to get a description, photos and videos together to share, the final incident occurred. An important thing to note, these incidents did not take place in one specific area of Austin, and the initial evidence we had did not show any similarities. The Austin Police Department takes the safety of our community seriously, but we must do our due diligence to ensure the information we share is done in a timely and accurate manner. 

The community has also inquired as to why the Blue Alert was not activated. Blue (and Amber) alerts require some sort of actionable intelligence. Merely sharing that an officer was shot does not give the community anything to “look out for” or action items to take to be safe. There was no specific suspect or vehicle information to share, which would meet our threshold for moving forward with a Blue Alert.  

Because this was not an active shooting event, we did not utilize the TX HB 103. This was a series of events which took place in several different locations across the city with various or unknown motives and no specific commonality.  It is not common practice for APD, or any other law enforcement agency, to issue any sort of alert for every shooting that happens in their jurisdiction with an unidentified shooter. 

Anyone with information is encouraged to call APD's Special Investigations Unit at (512) 974-6840 or Capitol Area Crime Stoppers at 512-472-8477. For the Capitol Area Crime Stoppers submission, you may submit a tip online at austincrimestoppers.org. You may remain anonymous.