Austin man killed by police after city's attempt to cut his grass leads to standoff, house fire

[dalton99a]

https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2021/10/29/austin-man-shot-killed-by-police-after-citys-attempt-to-cut-his-grass-turns-to-standoff-house-fire-fatal-shooting/

Austin man shot, killed by police after city’s attempt to cut his grass leads to standoff, house fire, officials say
A code inspector also suffered a minor shoulder injury during the standoff, reports say
By Cody King
October 28, 2021

AUSTIN, Texas – What started as Austin city personnel helping cut a man’s lawn quickly turned into a deadly situation after gunshots were fired, an hourslong standoff with police ensued, the house caught fire and the man was fatally shot by officers, according to Austin Police Chief Joseph Chacon.

The incident began at 9:16 a.m., Wednesday, at a home in the 10600 block of Pinkney Lane in the Circle C Ranch neighborhood.

Officers were first called to the home to serve a nuisance search warrant, but they were unable to find the man, according to Chief Chacon.

The warrant was left at the door by officers as city personnel began working on trimming the man’s lawn. However, around 10:21 a.m., authorities said the man began firing gunshots at them from inside of the home.

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https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/man-in-swat-situation-had-no-violent-history-during-code-visits-officials-say/

Man in SWAT situation had no violent history during code visits, officials say
by Kelsey Thompson, Tahera Rahman
Oct 28, 2021 / 02:17 PM CDT

[Demobrat]

1. That's taking get off my lawn to a whole new level N/T

[Laurelin]

2. Those are not inexpensive homes

I wonder what he was hiding. Was he running drugs or something?

Of course these days he might just have been crazy.

[cstanleytech]

4. Might have had a mental health issue that caused him to react that way as well and

it could also explain the lack of lawn care.

[dalton99a]

12. Value estimated at $729K-$805K

as of last week

10610 Pinkney Ln, Austin, TX 78739

[nuxvomica]

13. A co-worker once told me about a neighbor like this

The guy was well-off and very smart, like an engineer or some such, and one day my co-worker saw that the guy had bought dolls and stuffed animals and had lined them up all across the roof, front and back, and had placed others in windows facing out. The neighbor explained that people were coming to get him and the toys were lookouts. The authorities weren't called until the neighbor started running naked around the neighborhood one day.

[MerryBlooms]

3. So sad.

I used to help someone with their yard because they were unable to keep it up. Elderly, and at times, not really 'with it'. I gave her rides to the market, vet, etc... But, she would lock her gate and not answer, or open the gate for anyone, except family and a couple of friends. Had she been faced with this situation, I'm afraid her outcome would have been similar.

[orleans]

5. can you imagine being that s.w.a.t. shooter, going home at the end of the day &

thinking: i basically killed a guy because his lawn was overgrown

[Kaleva]

7. The man wasn't killed because his lawn was overgrown.

[stopdiggin]

9. the man opened fire on people

outside his home. (could have been mail carrier, a meter reader, or kids cutting across his lawn) I'm sure nobody went home real happy about the outcome - but the key elements here are guns and mental stability - not lawncare.

[multigraincracker]

6. Don't they have a "Stand your Lawn" law

down thar?

[marble falls]

8. Back in the day, neighbors would have cut it.

[obamanut2012]

10. And he would have shot them, instead

[marble falls]

11. Back in the day, the neighbors would have cut it and he'd have served lemonade ...

... people didn't go armed and managed to keep lawns from becoming a police matter.

[dalton99a]

14. The neighbors did try:

The suspect's next-door neighbor said he talked to him months at a time and in the 9 years he’s lived next to him, the lawn and shrubs were almost always overgrown.

“It wouldn’t be manicured. Sometimes he’d go a long time without mowing. The people I talked with, they had interaction with him over the last couple of years trying to get him to mow the yard,” said the suspect’s next-door neighbor.

We heard from one neighbor who said she jumped in to help periodically throughout the years.

“The day before I had come by and mowed part of his yard. Just doing an act of kindness and it’s about to be Halloween, so I mowed part of it and didn’t know the city was going to be sending out people the next day,” said a neighbor. "They had a lawn mowing service and apparently they had a warrant to do his yard,” said a neighbor.

https://cbsaustin.com/news/local/austin-code-enforcement-elaborates-on-violation-following-officer-involved-shooting