Surveillance video and police bodycam footage show the moments before and after Austin, Texas, police shot and killed 33-year-old tech entrepreneur Rajan Moonesinghe.
On November 15, the Austin Police Department received a call shortly after midnight about a man in a robe pointing a rifle down the street in a wealthy neighborhood. The caller, a private security guard for a neighbor, told dispatch that the man with the rifle appeared to be afraid of something in his own home and began turning the outside lights on and off, according to a press release from the APD.
Moonesinghe himself told a neighbor that someone was in his house and that he was going to call 911, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The caller then said the man with the rifle was pointing it inside his own home and started firing. While the caller was still on the line, police arrived at the home. Two officers in separate marked vehicles arrived at the scene and sought cover while Moonesinghe fired his rifle. One officer, identified by police as Daniel Sanchez, shouted at Mooneshinge to “drop the gun” but began firing his department-approved firearm before finishing the sentence, footage shows.
As Moonesinghe lay dying, the second officer, Stephen Markert, told the entrepreneur to show his hands but did not receive a response. A third officer, Luis Brito, arrived and the three approached Moonesinghe to begin life-saving measures. Footage from the incident shows Moonesinghe telling officers “it wasn’t me” multiple times.
Moonesinghe was taken to a local hospital but died from his injuries.
Officers checked Moonesinghe’s home but did not find any intruders.
Sanchez, who has been with the APD for nearly three years, has been placed on administrative leave while the department investigates the shooting. The APD said it would conduct two concurrent investigations: A criminal investigation conducted by the APD Special Investigations Unit along with the Travis County District Attorney’s Office and a second, administrative investigation conducted by the APD Internal Affairs Unit with oversight from the Office of Police Oversight.
Moonesinghe and his brother, Johann, operated a financial technology company, InKind, which provides financing to restaurants, the Daily Mail reported.
Johann told KVUE that life has been “really, really hard,” since his brother was killed.
“Nobody would’ve ever expected this, and I think it’s been even more difficult because it’s been a fight with police to get answers, to figure out what’s going on,” Johann told the outlet.
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