Austin police on Friday provided new details about mistakes they say were committed during their response to a disturbance at a South Austin coffee shop that spiraled into fatal stabbing last week said.
Police on Friday said dispatch protocol was not followed when they responded. Dispatchers are required to send two of the closest available officers within five minutes of a 911 report entering their dispatch queue.
However, “this did not occur and is part of the internal review,” police said in an email to media outlets Friday.
On Jan. 3, police received a 911 call about a disturbance at Bennu Coffee in South Congress Avenue at 7:49 a.m. Police said a single officer arrived to the coffee shop 20 minutes later.
The late arrival and the lack of a second responding officer are the most recent blunders to come to light in connection with the Police Department’s response to that incident.
Witnesses who were at the coffee shop at the time have said a man struck a patron in the back of the head with a coffee mug. Austin Police Chief Brian Manley has said other patrons were able to pin the attacker to the floor while police arrived.
Manley said an officer approached the suspect, later identified as 27-year-old Dylan Woodburn, but his duty belt became undone as he was about to handcuff him.
It was then that Woodburn fled from the coffee shop and ran toward Freebirds World Burrito across the shopping center, Manley said. Woodburn broke into the restaurant and stabbed two people, including 34-year-old Johnathan Aguilar who died at the scene.
After the stabbing, Woodburn climbed onto the roof of the restaurant jumped head-first onto the ground.
Woodburn fatally injured himself in the fall.
Manley said officials are investigating the police response into the incident, including why the officer’s belt became undone.
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