#JustIn the probable cause affidavits from this weekend’s hostage situation in Cedar Park. Reading them now for new information.
Here’s the new information: Taylor’s mom told 911 Taylor was trying to steal her car and was having a mental health episode, Taylor shot at officers while he was locked in his mom’s bedroom with two children - his siblings - as officers tried getting in, cont’d
Taylor made verbal and physical threats to his mother and the two children. On social media, he posted a selfie at 4:30 with the caption, “Being A Target Is Not Fun,” with blood on the floor and a towel wrapped around his left arm in the pic. Cont’d
In the live video he said, “And the police so fidgety... they finna kill me just cause I got a gun,” and, “After hearing all them gunshots now, they scared of me.”
The selfie picture also showed Taylor had a black handgun magazine in the front left pocket of his pants. He posted another picture with drops of blood on the floor and a black handgun magazine next to the blood.
Here’s the full document. There’s three affidavits in total - one for each officer shot - but they’re identical.
For those who cannot access the screenshots of the document, here’s the timeline of the nearly-18-hour hostage situation:
-Mother told 911 her son, Joseph Taylor, was actively stealing her car, and he was having a mental health episode
-Mother and two children locked in her bedroom
-Mother said she believed Taylor was armed with a weapon and could hear him attempting to enter one of her children’s room, throwing things around
-911 operator could hear a female screaming and Taylor trying to enter the bedroom the three family members were locked in
-Officers arrived, attempted to make contact. The door was already open, and they entered after their announcements went unanswered.
-Officers identified themselves as Cedar Park Police as they were entering.
-Officers went upstairs. Their announcements continued to be unanswered
-When upstairs, they could hear screaming from the locked bedroom
-Officers tried opening the bedroom door but it was barricaded
-While attempting forced entry into the bedroom, Taylor shot at them from inside the bedroom, hitting the three officers
-Officers then retreated
-Taylor forced the mother and two children to stay inside, with verbal and physical threats of injury
-Negotiations began with Taylor after perimeter formed
-At 4:30 officers saw social media posts from Taylor. One picture of a selfie had the caption, “Being A Target Is Not Fun,” with that picture showing drops of blood on the floor and a towel wrapped around his left arm.
-The sane selfie showed a black handgun magazine in his pocket.
-In the live video on Taylor’s said, “And the police so fidgety.. they finna kill me just cause I got a gun,” and, “After hearing all them gunshots now they scared of me.”
-At 7:30 Taylor released his two signings and told negotiators he was planning to walk out of the home with his mom
-At 8:52 Taylor and his mom walked out
• • •
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Only on @7NewsDC the Va Dept. of Education - VDOE - ruled Prince William Co Public Schools has "a fundamental misunderstanding" of their responsibility to special education students and have "systemically denied" necessary accommodations. Hear from affected parents tonight at 11.
The VDOE ruled the school district was in violation of state and federal special education laws, in response to one parent's complaint they didn't provide special education accommodations for her daughter when applying for a theater specialty program at Colgan High School.
The VDOE ruled the school district needed to set up a process to provide accommodations to special education students applying for specialty programs, and allow the affected student in the complaint to re-apply.
In case you haven't taken a look at today's committee schedule, here it is. Pretty jam-packed day today, I will try to provide updates to most of what's going on. I will be monitoring the redistricting committees for now.
Here's the link to the House redistricting live stream:
Packed house in front of the Williamson County Historic Courthouse, as we wait for Williamson County DA Shawn Dick and Travis County DA Margaret Moore to discuss the grand jury indictment of Sheriff Robert Chody. This is set to start at 3.
Dick starting: Grand jury heard from 19 witnesses before they turned in their indictments for Chody and Jason Nassour. Punishment can be 2-10 years with up to $10,000 fine. Both arrested and released. First court date is November 30.
Moore now speaking: they will continue presentation of evidence to their grand jury later in October.
The Texas Secretary of State's office announced they broke its voter registration record, with 16,617,436 Texans registered. What's notable is how much bigger an increase this is than the previous presidential election year, especially compared to other years' increases:
Here's a quick breakdown of just recent elections:
I spoke with a political expert, he says some of this is population growth, but ongoing issues the country is facing - the pandemic, economic downturn, and racial injustices - are a big factor in this.
#HappeningNow Travis County Commissioners Court starting up. I will keep you updated on this THREAD:
They're going through budget items now. They just unanimously approved the allocation of $351,294 of unclaimed capital credits:$163,013 for hub disparity study, $100,000 for hub consultant, $40,000 to support children in CPS, cont...
$33,281 for sober living houses for parents with substance abuse problems, $15,000 for housing for children without placement