Man charged with murder in Rainey Street apartment complex shooting, Austin police say

A 25-year-old man was arrested in connection with the Saturday morning shooting death of a man on the 19th floor of a downtown Austin high-rise, according to a police press release.

Police arrested Timmel Eggleston, 25, Saturday evening and charged him in the shooting of Alan Picazzo, 24, the release said.

Eggleston, who public records show is a Maryland native, is a former college basketball player who was on the teams at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, Arkansas State University and Bryant University in Rhode Island between 2017 and 2021, according to various media reports and a biography on ESPN.com.

First responders received a 911 call from Eggleston's roommate around 6:30 a.m. reporting six gunshots inside the Quincy apartment building, at 91 Red River St., near Rainey Street. He said the person had been shot on the 19th floor and was possibly in the elevator, Eggleston's arrest affidavit says. Police found Picazzo with multiple gunshot wounds inside the freight elevator on the first floor. He was taken to Dell Seton Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 7:11 a.m., the affidavit says.

Police have determined that Eggleston had been "out earlier in the evening" with his roommate at a bar on Sixth Street, when they encountered Kevin Braganca, a neighbor who resided on the 29th floor of their apartment complex. Eggleston and Braganca stayed out later, after Eggleston's roommate left the bar and returned home, the affidavit says.

Eggleston and Braganca returned to the apartment complex at 5:01 a.m., surveillance footage showed. Eggleston told police that he went to the 29th floor to purchase marijuana from Braganca when he noticed the apartment door was ajar. He took about 2 ounces of marijuana and a firearm, the affidavit says.

Eggleston told police that he "felt bad" about stealing from Braganca, and he and Braganca later arranged to meet at the elevators so he could return the marijuana, the affidavit says. Surveillance footage shows Eggleston inside an elevator and Braganca standing directly outside it at 5:31 a.m., exchanging a storage container of marijuana and a suitcase with video games, the affidavit says. The footage shows Braganca brandishing a firearm, and Eggleston later told police he felt threated by Braganca. Eggleston returned to his apartment on the 19th floor after no violence ensued.

He told police that later he heard two people knocking at his apartment door and attempted to look out of the peep hole, but saw it was being covered, the affidavit says. The two people began to kick at the door until it came off its hinges, and Eggleston was able to see that they were wearing masks, the affidavit says. He heard a gunshot in the hallway, while trying to keep the people from entering his apartment by putting his weight against the door. He used the gun he took from Braganca's apartment and shot several rounds into the hallway, the affidavit says. He told police he heard one of the individuals say they had been hit.

After the shooting, Eggleston exited the apartment building and walked less than three blocks to conceal the handgun underneath the Interstate 35 overpass that intersects East Cesar Chavez Street, the affidavit says. Eggleston initially did not disclose the gun's location to law enforcement but later relented when police said he was seen on surveillance footage, the affidavit says.

The affidavit did not specify whether Eggleston knew Picazzo, nor did it identify the second masked man who was trying to break into Eggleston's apartment.

Eggleston is being held at the Travis County Jail on charges of murder, burglary of habitation, theft of a firearm and tampering with physical evidence with intent to conceal. His bond amount is currently pending.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Man charged with murder in downtown Austin apartment complex shooting