APD identifies man killed in North Austin shooting
Investigators with the Austin Police Department have identified the man killed in a shooting Saturday in a parking lot located at 1070 Mearns Meadow Blvd.
According to APD, the Austin Fire Department and the Austin-Travis County EMS arrived on scene and located 21-year-old Darwin Jimenez with a gunshot wound.
APD says Jimenez succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead on the scene at 5:20 p.m.
According to police it appears that a verbal altercation began when a male pulled into the parking lot. APD says Jimenez and a group of men were sitting inside a car in the parking lot.
Reports indicate that Jimenez and the group of men began yelling at the male. As the male exited his vehicle, Jimenez and the men drove up just past the male and stopped their car. Jimenez and another man exited their vehicle.
Jimenez began shooting at the male. The male retreated to his vehicle retrieving his own handgun and returned fire, striking Jimenez.
The male was a concealed handgun license holder. Neither of the men knew each other.
The Travis County Medical Examiner conducted an autopsy and determined Jimenez’s cause of death to be the result of a gunshot wound.
The case is under review by the Travis County District Attorney’s Office, as this incident appears to be self-defense. The male and others involved are cooperating with police.
"The District Attorney's office or the police could charge them because they don't want to look like they're not charging people when there's a dead body," said criminal defense attorney George Lobb, who is unrelated to the case.
Without knowing all the details of what led up to the shooting, Lobb said returning fire could be justified because of Texas' "stand your ground" law.
"It seems as though the CHL holder was near his vehicle, the CHL holder was fired on first and that being deadly force returned fire and that would fit the bill as justification so long as there was no other offense committed by the CHL holder above a class C misdemeanor."
Homicide Detectives are asking anyone who may have information about this incident to call the Homicide Tip Line at 512-477-3588.
