Senior Police Officer Jorge Pastore died Saturday.@Chief_Henderson/X
The Messenger News
Published 11/11/23 10:17 PM ET
Zachary Rogers
Police in Texas have identified the SWAT officer who was among the four people who died, including the suspect, after a hostage situation turned fatal on Saturday.
Senior Police Officer Jorge Pastore is the first officer to be killed in the line of duty in Austin, Texas, in more than a decade, according to a statement made by Austin Police Department Interim Chief Robin Henderson.
“My heart is heavy today. 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,” Henderson wrote in a social media post. “Thanks for all the prayers & thoughts. Continue to keep the Pastore family and our second Officer injured in your prayers.”
Pastore and other officers engaged in a shootout with the suspect around 4 a.m. Saturday after SWAT broke into a home to end a standoff. A man had barricaded himself in the home and a female victim had called police saying that she had been stabbed.
The suspect was killed and two SWAT officers, including Pastore, were shot during the altercation.
Both officers were taken to the hospital, where Pastore was declared deceased. The other unidentified SWAT officer is in stable condition, according to Henderson.
Two other people were found dead in the home after the incident, bringing the total amount of people killed in the incident to four, including Pastore and the suspect, per the Austin American-Statesman. It is unclear at this time how the two people found in the home died.
Henderson said previously that a third victim was able to escape and told officers responding to the scene that the suspect had a knife.
Pastore joined the Austin Police Department in 2019 as a cadet and graduated in January 2020. He was a member of APD’s honor Guard, SWAT Gold Team, Center for Advanced Security Training and the Special Response Team.
Pastore is survived by his wife and two stepsons along with his parents and two sisters, according to the Austin American-Statesman.
Memorial service details are pending at this time, Henderson said.
Henderson previously said that the incident was captured on body cameras and that the APD will be conducting two concurrent investigations into the exchange of gunfire.
The last time an Austin police officer was killed in the line of duty was in April 2012, when Officer Jamie Padron was shot by suspect Brandon Daniel.