Rookie Cop Keeps His Wits About Him

Andrew Jones (by Austin Police Department)

At around 11pm on Thursday, Sept. 4, APD Officer Matt Murphy ran the plates of a Toyota Camry driving down I-35 near Parmer Lane and discovered that it had been reported stolen. When Murphy turned on his siren and tried to pull the car over, it sped away and exited 35, stopping only after a crash made it impossible to continue.

After the suspect, 20-year-old Andrew Jones, got out of the car, Murphy unholstered his gun, which is APD procedure for an officer making a felony stop. But before the officer could confront him, Jones began to run.

Murphy reholstered his gun and took out his Taser. Officers have the option of using a Taser on a fleeing suspect, in order, as APD Chief Art Acevedo put it at a press conference yesterday afternoon, “to mitigate a foot pursuit.” As the officer was catching up with Jones, he heard what Acevedo described as a “distinct click”: the sound of a gun’s trigger being pulled without a bullet in the chamber. Faced with the likelihood that Jones was about to shoot at him again, Murphy was forced to make a split-second decision between using the Taser in his hand, or taking the time to unholster and aim his gun, which might give Jones a chance to chamber a round and shoot his weapon successfully. Murphy fired his Taser, causing Jones to drop his gun. Jones still wasn’t prepared to go down without a fight, but after Tasering him multiple times and wrestling him to the ground, the officer was finally able to subdue him.

After backup arrived and Jones had been arrested, officers discovered that not only had the car been reported stolen, but the gun Jones attempted to fire, a 9mm Sig Sauer with a clip loaded, had also been reported stolen. Jones has been charged with attempted capital murder of a police officer, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison, and his bail has been set at $1,040,000.

Acevedo made it a point to emphasize that Murphy would have been “completely justified in deploying deadly force” when he realized that Jones was trying to shoot him, and the chief said that it was important to understand that Murphy hadn’t chosen not to use deadly force so much as, “under the totality of the circumstances,” it simply seemed like using the Taser in his hand was the best option Murphy had to protect himself. Acevedo wanted people to realize that if they point a gun at an officer, they’re “probably going to get shot.” He said that he planned to commend Murphy, who graduated from the Police Academy this May, by giving him a Chief’s Coin, but that it would be for being able to “keep his wits about him” and resolve a dangerous situation, rather than to reward any perceived choice not to use deadly force.