SUNSET VALLEY, Texas (KXAN) — A YouTube video shows Sunset Valley police officers interacting with a crowd of people and vehicles acting “disorderly” in a shopping center parking lot about an hour before Austin Police reported the first calls about the “street takeovers” over the weekend.
That video, posted to YouTube, is linked here. Be advised there is language and video some viewers may find offensive.
“I feared for the officers’ safety,” Sunset Valley Police Chief Lenn Carter said. “The officer reported at one point she thought it was about 500 vehicles.”
A customer in the parking lot called police around 8 p.m. Saturday when they were concerned by the gathering, Carter said.
In the more than 50-minute video, you can see a crowd of cars and people in the parking lot. At certain points, you can see smoke as well as cars and trucks speeding through the lot. When KXAN crews went to the parking lot Wednesday afternoon, skid marks were still visible.
Carter confirmed the officers seen in the video work for his department. Around the five-minute mark, an officer can be heard telling certain members of the crowd that if store employees called the police, the group would have to leave. She then used an expletive while telling the group not to mess things up.
“She tried to make some kind of connection with who she thought was the leadership of that group, and basically said ‘hey, here’s the rules,'” said Carter. “I know she took it seriously. She knew that she was certainly outnumbered. And she sat back and watched it. It just gave the appearance she was joking around with them, and there was some give-and-take there when actually she was drawing the line on what they could get away with. If they stepped over that line, they were going to have to leave, which she did enforce that.”
Chief Carter said because the vehicles were in a private parking lot, most general traffic rules did not apply to them, but “driving recklessly in a private parking lot is a crime, we just can’t tolerate that. you cross the line when you start to jeopardize other people’s safety and property.”
He also said there have been similar recent incidents in Sunset Valley that did not ultimately escalate to what happened Saturday after the drivers left the small city.
“[The officers’] best bet was to be tactful, and try to be as safe as they can and try to get the people out of there safely before anybody got hurt and any property was damaged,” said Chief Carter. “But they were limited in what they could do in that moment anyway.”
About 25 minutes after police arrived, the officers on scene were able to clear the parking lot. Chief Carter said Sunset Valley’s dispatch runs on the same channels as APD’s, and his officer “got on the radio and said they were 500 vehicles being disorderly in the parking lot, but shortly thereafter two officers were able to clear that whole scene.”
Chief Carter said the drivers left the parking lot aggressively and scattered, some of the cars “peeling out,” he described.
“Looking back, I think maybe they could have clarified to dispatch hey, you know… they were very disorderly. But really what the officers were dealing with was nothing like what the [Austin Police] officers later saw,” he said.
Chief Carter said he will be discussing the handling of the incident with the officers who were on scene Saturday night. He also said that even if the officers called for Sunset Valley backup “there wouldn’t have been much for backup to do. We already protected oncoming traffic and got those people out of there.”
But given how things escalated Saturday night, Chief Carter said “senses will definitely be heightened.”
What we know about the Austin ‘street takeovers’
At least 7 people have been arrested following the street takeover events.
APD arrested two people Saturday night. Four others were arrested Sunday. The Texas Department of Public Safety also arrested one person.
Charges range from drug charges and illegal weapons offenses to evading arrest.