Alleged Texas shooter had warrants, family violence history. He was able to buy a gun anyway.
The man charged in the shooting deaths of six people from San Antonio to Austin had repeated encounters with law enforcement, a history of mental health problems and outstanding warrants from a family assault arrest more than a year and a half prior.
He was able to purchase a firearm anyway.
The circumstances surrounding last week's shooting rampage are coming into better focus after the Austin Police Department held a press conference Tuesday, where the agency's top officials publicly fielded questions for the first time since the shootings.
Shane James Jr., a 34-year-old Bexar County resident accused of killing six people and injuring three, including two police officers, has repeatedly crossed paths with law enforcement dating to at least 2017, records show, including a mental health crisis at his parents' home three months before the string of violent shootings on Dec. 5.
James, a former U.S. Army officer, bought the .45-caliber handgun he used in the shootings from a private seller in July 2022, police said Tuesday. The purchase would break James' bond conditions from a misdemeanor family assault arrest in January 2022, according to court records obtained by the American-Statesman.
At the time of the sale, James had active warrants out for his arrest for cutting off his GPS-equipped ankle monitor, court records show. For more than a year and nine months, the warrants were outstanding until Austin police arrested him after a police pursuit ended in a crash, ending his eight-hour shooting tear across the city.
Jamal Alsaffar, an Austin-based attorney representing Sutherland Springs families impacted by the 2017 mass shooting, said the revelations about James and his history, particularly the accused shooter's ability to purchase the handgun as active warrants loomed, mirror the contributing factors in other mass killings in the country.
"With what is slowly being released about the shooter, it sounds like we're simply living through yet another highly predictable and highly preventable mass shooting in Texas," Alsaffar said in an interview. "Just like Sutherland Springs, we have somebody with a known history of domestic violence, known history of bad conduct in the military who then had easy access to firearms and committed a mass shooting."
Would a federal background check have stopped a purchase?
It's unclear this week whether a federal background check would have stopped the purchase.
Federally licensed firearms dealers must run a prospective buyer through the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System, known as NICS, prior to making a sale. People barred from buying a gun are those who have been committed to a mental institution or “adjudicated as a mental defective,” anyone dishonorably discharged from military service and perpetrators of domestic violence.
Authorities have not stated whether James, who they say has a history of mental health problems, was committed to a mental institution, and federal laws bar the discourse of most medical information. His discharge from the military, though a result of "unacceptable conduct," police say, did not rise to the level of a disqualifying dishonorable discharge.
Authorities have not stated whether James was reported to NICS. On Wednesday, the Bexar County sheriff's office did not confirm or deny whether he was listed. Austin police deferred questions about NICS to the FBI. Trista Moxley, a public affairs specialist in the FBI's San Antonio Division, declined to comment.
Regardless, in Texas, private gun sales do not require a federal background check. A scant paper trail, if any, is left. The seller, whom police declined to identify, told investigators James presented “appropriate identification," police said.
Authorities, records describe multiple encounters with law enforcement since 2017
For a time, James lived in the Fort Worth-Dallas metroplex. In 2017, Fort Worth police arrested James for criminal trespassing at the Fort Worth Water Gardens. He pleaded guilty days later and received a 10-day jail sentence, court records show.
In December 2018, after Austin police were called to a Northwest Austin church, officers placed James in "emergency detention" after he was experiencing suicidal ideations, police said Tuesday. A police spokesperson asked by the Statesman did not provide further information, advising the newspaper to submit a Texas Public Information Act request to obtain the incident report — a process that can span weeks. The Statesman's request is pending.
In January 2022, Bexar County sheriff's deputies arrested James at his eastern Bexar County home, charging him after he reportedly assaulted his parents and a sibling. Police on Tuesday said James shot and killed his parents sometime between the evening of Dec. 4 and the morning of Dec. 5.
According to the January 2022 incident report, his father told deputies James was "getting aggressive" and breaking items in the home, then pushing and scratching his father. The mother, who fell to the ground during the scuffle, had a "quarter size knot" on the back of her head. The sister, who was pushed twice and fell during the incident, had injuries to her shoulder.
The three declined medical attention and stated they wished to press charges against James, according to the report, which classified the incident as a "mental disorder."
James bonded out of jail weeks later and cut his GPS-equipped ankle monitor, triggering authorities to put a warrant out for his arrest. He remained a fugitive for more than a year and a half until his arrest last week.
At this point, James could have been reported to NICS, said Allison Anderman, a director of local policy for the Giffords Law Center, an advocacy group seeking to stem gun violence. However, she added, discourse about whether James was reported to NICS risks missing the bigger picture: Texas does not require background checks on private gun sales.
"Whether or not that that bond prohibition was reported NICS is irrelevant in a state that doesn't require background checks on private sales," Anderman said. "There are a lot of people who attempt to purchase a firearm from the dealer not knowing they were prohibited, but someone who is a tad bit savvier and they know they're prohibited, in Texas, they can just go buy a gun (in a private sale)."
A dispatch call log dating to 2018 shows Bexar County sheriff's deputies received five calls to James' address in eastern Bexar County between 2018 and his January 2022 arrest.
A missing person call in April 2018
A found/runaway call in May 2018
A theft call in September 2019
A family disturbance call in October 2021
A welfare check in November 2021
However, whether these calls relate to James is not clear. Deputy Johnny C. Garcia, a sheriff's office spokesperson, did not provide additional information when the Statesman asked about these calls. In a statement, he said the newspaper would need to submit a Texas Public Information Act request to obtain the incident reports. The Statesman's requests are pending.
Few details disclosed on short period in the military
James was an infantry officer in the Army from February 2013 to August 2015, not serving his entire contract term. Bryce S. Dubee, an Army spokesperson, declined to disclose any information about the departure, citing Army policy barring the release of information relating to the "misconduct of low-level employees or characterization of service at discharge."
Though the events leading up to his early discharge are unclear, Bexar County and Austin law enforcement have disclosed some details.
During a San Antonio press conference a day after the shootings, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar attributed the separation to "some sort of a domestic violence incident." Asked for more information Wednesday, Garcia said a "domestic incident" occurred in 2014 but declined to elaborate, deferring further questions to the Army.
During the Tuesday press conference, Austin police initially said James received an other-than-honorable discharge — a designation representing the most severe form of administrative discharge without being court marshaled.
However, when asked for more information on Wednesday, police seemed to indicate the information given at the press conference was incorrect. Instead, police said, James received a general discharge for “unacceptable conduct.”
"The accurate terminology is: General discharge for unacceptable conduct," an Austin police spokesperson said in an unattributed statement to the Statesman. The spokesperson did not answer questions seeking to confirm whether the police's initial disclosure about James' discharge was a mistake.
A general discharge allows for more after-service benefits than an other-than-honorable discharge, including from the VA. In a statement, Gary J. Kunich, a VA spokesperson, confirmed James received care from the VA after his service ended but declined to provide more information, citing federal laws restricting the release of medical information.
Neither a general discharge nor an other-than-honorable discharge would prevent firearms ownership. However, a dishonorable discharge, granted it's reported to NICS, would halt a gun sale at a federally recognized vendor.
Authorities detail mental health history
The severity of James' reported mental health issues is unclear. To what extent those issues could factor into how prosecutors try James in Bexar County, where additional charges are forthcoming, and Travis County remains to be seen.
The timeline described last week by Salazar indicates James' last interaction with law enforcement officials was in August 2023, when deputies responded to his home as James was having a "mental health episode," Salazar said.
Despite being aware of the outstanding warrants, sheriff's deputies were unable to make an arrest because James had barricaded himself in his room, Salazar said, adding that James yelled racial and homophobic slurs at the sheriff's deputies.
The sheriff's deputies left, asking the father to contact them once James exited his room. But that call didn't come, Salazar said. It's unclear whether they returned. Salazar acknowledged James' mental state, saying James was off his medication and had been drinking.
James should not have been able to procure the firearm he used to kill six people, Salazar said. The sheriff stopped short of shifting the blame from James.
“His condition meant he shouldn’t have had guns, but that happened,” Salazar said in Spanish during the press conference. .“Even though this man has physical, mental problems, he’s an adult. He knows what he should and shouldn’t be doing, so the fault is his."
Salazar defended his deputies' actions but said he wished the arrest had been made.
"I wish we would have been able to get him in custody," Salazar said. "That being said, it's assuming a lot saying had they just arrested him that day, this wouldn't have happened. Chances are, he would have already served his time and been out by this time anyway."
On Wednesday, Garcia, the sheriff's office spokesperson, said all sheriff's deputies who work patrols undergo crisis intervention training. However, he said, no one on the county's specialized mental health units responded to the scene that day.
Local News Editor Vicky Camarillo contributed Spanish-English translations for this article.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Alleged Texas shooter bought gun despite family violence warrants
