Bastrop Police Department Investigating Shooting
• The Bastrop Police Department is investigating a shooting that left a 19-year-old man injured. Police were called out to a report of shots fired along the 400 block of Magnolia Street just before 4 p.m. Sunday, the police department said in a statement. When police arrived, they found a 19-year-old with a gunshot wound. The man, who has not been publicly identified by police, was taken by helicopter to Dell Seton hospital for his injury and was being evaluated by medical staff as of Sunday evening, the department said. Police say the shooting appears to be an isolated incident. The shooting remains an active investigation.
• The monument relocation committee recently selected by the Bastrop County Commissioners Court and charged with determining the future of the county’s two Confederate monuments is searching for a new home for the stone blocks. The Commissioners Court voted in July to remove the two Confederate monuments from the courthouse lawn. The commissioners’ July vote for removal marked a victory for a grassroots campaign that, since 2015, has pushed to remove the monuments from the courthouse grounds despite firm opposition from county leadership. One of the statues is a tall stone obelisk with Confederate symbols that was erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1910. The second is a granite headstone commemorating Joseph D. Sayers, a major in the Confederate Army and Texas’ 22nd governor, which was erected in 1964 by the state of Texas. One of the potential sites is the Veterans of Foreign Wars Park in Smithville.
• A man who was taken into custody by deputies after a crash near Elgin died Tuesday afternoon after having difficulty breathing, according to the Bastrop County Sheriff’s Office. Authorities received reports around 10:30 a.m. of a vehicle that had veered off U.S. 290 and crashed into a fence while traveling eastbound from Elgin. “The vehicle came to rest several hundred feet in the field, but not before the sole occupant was ejected from the vehicle,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post Tuesday. Deputies said they discovered that the man was driving a vehicle that had been stolen in Austin on Monday. When they located him near the crashed vehicle he became combative. Officials said two deputies were injured while trying to detain him, adding that the man was brought into custody after deputies deployed stun guns on him. Medics arrived at the scene to treat the two deputies and the man, who was suffering from injuries related to the crash. “While EMS was doing their medical assessment, they noticed that the suspect was having difficulty breathing so they initiated CPR and called for air transport,” the Sheriff’s Office said. He was pronounced dead at 12:49 p.m. at the Heart Hospital of Austin. The Sheriff’s Office has not released the name of the man but said that he is a convicted felon and a registered sex offender. The sheriff also said that drug paraphernalia was found in the stolen vehicle.
The Bellville Times
• Houston attorney, Randy Sorrels of Abraham, Watkins, Nichols, Sorrels, Agosto, Aziz & Stogner, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of the father of Lucas Harrison, a 14-year-old special needs youth who drowned at Camp Journey, a camp for individuals of all ages with disabilities, near Bellville. According to a press release from Sorrel, on July 23, 2020, Lucas Harrison was in the pool with other campers and camp counselors at Camp Journey, where the counselors and a lifeguard or multiple lifeguards were supposed to be present and protecting the campers. Additionally, Harrison was required to wear a life vest at all times while near or in the water. The first notification that something was wrong came from another special needs camper. Harrison was not wearing a life vest and was found at the bottom of the pool. The lawsuit alleges that the camp was negligent in its failure to exercise safety precautions, provide a safe environment at the pool and properly supervise, train and hire a sufficient number of counselors and lifeguards.
• The Austin County Fair Association has announced the cancellation of the 2020 Austin County Fair. The Austin County Fair was scheduled for Oct. 2-11. In a press release, President Robert Winkelmann stated, “Due to the coronavirus pandemic concerns, the Austin County Fair Board of Directors and staff are saddened to announce the cancellation since World War II.”
The Examiner
• The Navasota Economic Development Corporation (NEDC) met on August 19 and received an encouraging report regarding retail development in Navasota. According to Retail Coach President Aaron Farmer, 12 years of pitching Navasota by city staff and Retail Coach are paying off with interest from five fast-food restaurants that include Taco Bell and pizza, chicken and burgers. Farmer told the NEDC that developers have been searching sites during the coronavirus and to expect the fourth quarter of 2020 and the first quarter of 2021 to be “active.”