Welcome to this weeks edition of Texas Insiders TXTV!
See footage from Texas Capitol Ground minutes after Thursdays shooting at the Capitol as well as click through on our link to exclusive photos of the arrest.
Also dont miss
Downtown Amy Browns analysis of Tuesdays mountain-moving election in Massachusetts.
See more on the story here.
Just before lunch Thursday surprised visitors & legislative office staff went into lock-down" as random shots were fired by a lone gunman who had just visited the offices of State Senator Dan Patrick.
The suspect came into my office asking to speak to one of my female staff members in my office Patrick wrote on his Facebook page. He was acting in a way that made my staff concerned. He left and and a few minutes later several shots were reportedly fired.
State troopers arrested 24-year old Fausto Cardenas on Thursday for allegedly firing several shots on the south steps of the Texas Capitol the Travis County sheriffs department said.
No one was injured in the lunch hour shooting. Cardenas is from Houston according to Tela Mange a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Safety.
The suspect had just visited & left the 3rd-floor office of Sen. Dan Patrick (R-Houston) before shooting. Pictures from the actual arrest
are available here thanks to LaVida Studios
Cardenas will likely be charged with felony misconduct.
State Troopers on guard in the Capitol converged with guns drawn outside Patricks office.
Senator Patrick said he and other senators have talked amongst themselves at various times of their concern regarding the openness of the Texas Capitol although todays incedent is the 1st any Capitol observers can
remember.
Gov. Rick Perry issued the following statement commending the Texas Department of Public Safetys swift action in responding to a shooter at the State Capitol:
I commend the Texas Department of Public Safety troopers who responded swiftly to a shooter on the South Steps of the State Capitol. Thanks to their efforts no one was injured and the shooter was apprehended immediately and taken in to custody."
Said Patrick Our troopers do a great job but with open access to the public day & night its impossible to track everyone. Im going to call upon leadership to review our security policy after todays event.
