Cedar Park shootings: Standoff over, hostages freed

The suspect was identified as Joseph DeSean Taylor, 26. He is charged with three counts of assault with a deadly weapon on an officer and three counts of aggravated kidnapping, according to a Cedar Park police news release.

CNN reported earlier that the standoff began Sunday afternoon when police responded to a call at a home in the Austin suburb of a woman who said her son “had kicked in the door and acted very aggressively,” Cedar Park Interim Chief of Police Mike Harmon said in a press release that night.

When officers responded to entering the house, “they were filled with gunfire” and the “officers returned gunfire,” Harmon said. Three officers were shot, but they are stable and ‘doing well,’ Harmon said.

The three officers were identified as Jacqueline Quiles, Cris Hester and Nik Anderson. An internal investigation by Cedar Park Police’s Professional Standards Department is also underway by department policy, police said.

After the shooting, the suspect barricaded himself in the house with his mother, brother and sister. Police had been in contact with him and the others in the house.

After 16 hours, the brother and sister were released Monday morning, Harmon said. At about 9 a.m., the suspect and the last hostage, his mother, quietly left the house, tweeting police.

The Texas Rangers are now leading the investigation into the incident.