Update: The Austin police officer killed during a shootout with a man holding several people hostage was a former paramedic in Florida.
Officer Jorge Pastore became a police officer after previously serving as a paramedic in Florida during one of the state’s worst tragedies.
After responding to the Parkland school shooting in 2018, where 17 kids were killed and 17 others were wounded, Jorge decided he wanted to become an officer.
“He was a paramedic in Florida, and he was one of the first to arrive after the Parkland school shooting happened,” Michael Bullock, the president-elect of the Austin Police Association told the DailyMail.com.
“After that happened, he made the decision that he wanted to be part of something that worked to prevent that stuff from happening and not having to come in after it’s all happened.”
Earlier:
Gabriella Ybarra, San Antonio Express-News
(TNS)
Austin police have identified the officer who was killed during a shootout with a man holding several people hostage at a South Austin home on Saturday.
Interim Police Chief Robin Henderson said in a post on X that the officer was Jorge Pastore, who began his career with the Austin Police Department as a cadet in June 2019 and was commissioned as an officer in January 2020.
Pastore served on the department’s honor guard and SWAT Gold Team. He is survived by his wife, two stepsons, parents and two sisters.
“My heart is heavy today,” Henderson said. “Please help me and our APD family pay tribute to SPO Jorge Pastore for his brave & heroic actions. Sir, we’ll take it from here.”
Pastore was one of four people killed during the shootout at a home in the 9300 block of Bernoulli Drive early Saturday. Police said the suspected shooter and two other people in the house also died. A second officer was injured, but is in stable condition.
It was the first time in a decade that an Austin police officer was killed in the line of duty.
Just before 3 a.m., police were responded to a call from a woman who said she had been stabbed and needed help. She managed to escape and was taken to a hospital. She is expected to survive.
When officers arrived, they learned that two other injured people were inside the house with the suspect, Henderson said.
Officers tried to rescue the injured but the suspect opened fire, Henderson said. The officers backed out of the home and did not return fire. They called a SWAT team to assist them.
SWAT officers entered the home about an hour later, and the suspect fired again and officers returned fire, Henderson said. During the exchange, Pastore and another officer were shot.
The suspect was pronounced dead at the scene, as well as the two injured people inside, Henderson said.
Pastore and the other officer were taken to a local hospital for treatment, where Pastore later died from his injuries.
Henderson said the shooting was captured on officers’ body cameras, and that the department would be conducting a criminal and administrative investigation into the incident.
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