A reveler mortally wounded at a Halloween costume party last weekend in Central Austin had tried to stop the gunman before he shot him and three others, police said Monday.
Dressed as Santa Claus, 32-year-old Randall Gaston Jones was at the party at his North Loop home in the 5500 block of Avenue F when about 6 a.m. his guests saw that he had become “highly intoxicated,” Austin police Lt. Jason Staniszewski said.
Those at the party tried to calm Jones down and told him to go to bed, Staniszewski said, but Jones later returned to the party with a gun and fired a shot into the ground.
Everyone scattered, and one of the guests, 37-year-old Michael McCloskey, went after Jones “in an attempt to protect everybody,” Staniszewski said. He declined to provide details about what happened after that but said McCloskey was shot several times and three others were wounded.
Medics in bulletproof vests raced McCloskey — known as Ted to his friends and family — and two women who were wounded to Dell Seton Medical Center, where McCloskey died of his wounds Sunday afternoon. One of the women was being treated for life-threatening injuries and the other woman has been released from the hospital.
Police said a fourth person, who declined to be taken to the hospital after the shooting, had a very minor wound, possibly from a ricocheting bullet.
Among the wounded, only McCloskey was identified by police. However, neighbor Ryan Cadell said one of the victims was Jennifer Beard, the woman who owns the house. Beard rented a room to Jones and was good friends with him, Cadell said. Last he heard, Beard was in the intensive care unit of the hospital with multiple gunshot wounds, Cadell said.
After the shooting, Jones walked down the street to a neighbor’s home a few houses away, police said. He told the neighbor about an incident at his home and said he would surrender to authorities, according to investigators.
He placed a black semi-automatic handgun on the neighbor’s welcome mat and waited for police to arrive, police said. Officers eventually found him and took him into custody.
Jones refused to speak to detectives after the shooting, Staniszewski said.
He was booked into the Travis County Jail and is now facing one count of murder and two counts of aggravated assault, police said.
McCloskey’s death is the city’s 27th homicide case this year, according to Austin police.
