Central Texas Gun Works owner Michael Cargill is no stranger to the local press in Austin, Texas or to Second Amendment advocates It was Cargill v. Garland that led to the ATF's rule treating bump stocks as machine guns getting tossed by the Supreme Court, but Cargill is also one of the go-to guys in the Texas capital when they need a talking head for a quote on a story having to do with firearms.
Cargill's most recent press appearance, though, was a little different than his usual offerings. On Saturday, Cargill held a press conference detailing what he says was a self-defense shooting involving two of his employees.
"My employees were just there to have a great time," said Cargill. He claims that his assistant manager and a sales clerk were mistaken for the wrong people as they entered the Cabana Club parking lot.
"These people were in the parking lot who had just gotten kicked out of the club and mistook my employees as someone who was actually involved in an incident which happened in the club." said Cargill. "They immediately started jumping on my employees, assaulting them."
He went on to claim that as the altercation continued, more people joined in on the assault against his employees, with as many as twelve people being involved. Eventually, one of his employees was knocked unconscious, which led to the other employee taking action.
"My other employee saw that he was knocked unconscious and made his decision to pull out his firearm and stop the threat."
That's when shots rang out, leaving one man dead. After opening fire, Cargill says the employee left the scene.
"He did exactly what he was supposed to do, and that's to get out of there, because there's twelve people, a dozen people attacking two people. He has to get out of there."
Cargill says that employee went to a nearby urgent care clinic to get treatment for his injuries. While there, Cargill alleges several police officers showed up and placed the employee under arrest on charges of murder.
Cargill also told reporters the other employee involved in the incident suffered a fractured skull and bruised ribs in the encounter, but it's unclear whether they too are facing any criminal charges.
In fact, we don't know for sure whether or not either employee has been charged with a crime. The Austin Police Department has been relatively quiet about its investigation into the shooting, and has not made any official statements about arrests or charges. KXAN-TV reported on Saturday that it was attempting to get ahold of any affidavits related to the investigation, but as of Monday afternoon the station had reported no additional details. The brief account detailed by Austin police on Friday night differs from Cargill's account in at least one respect, however.
Police Department spokesperson Aaron Townsend said in a Friday night briefing that a group of people, both inside and outside the club, engaged in an altercation.Shots were heard, and officers responded to the scene a few minutes later.Officers located an adult male subject with "obvious trauma" to his body. Life-saving measures were attempted; however, those were unsuccessful, and the man was declared deceased at 9:02 p.m.A preliminary investigation found the incident occurred in the club's back room, he said. No weapon had been recovered.
Homicide detectives and crime scene investigators were called, and they took information from those at the scene. EMS also arrived on the scene, Townsend said in the Friday briefing.
Cabana Club did not shut down immediately, but did start shutting down operations as authorities spoke with people on scene, he said.
Police say the incident took place in a back room of the club, while Cargill says his employees never even made it inside. Now, it could be that the officers on the scene conflated the initial disturbance that led to the group getting kicked out of the club with the alleged attack on Cargill's employees, but according to Cargill the two incidents were entirely separate.
If things went down the way Cargill describes, neither of his employees should be looking at criminal charges. Hopefully the APD will soon provide an update, and will confirm or deny whether or not anyone has been arrested for murder in this shooting. We'll be keeping an eye out for any updates, and will report them just as soon as they become available.
***UPDATE***
KXAN-TV has now published its summary of the affidavit, and police have charged one of the employees of Central Texas Gun Works with murder, though he told police he was acting in self-defense.
It started sometime before 11 p.m., when a club employee said he was involved in a fight with an acquaintance and some bystanders. Meanwhile, a club patron saw the fight and helped break it up, the patron told police.
After the fight dispersed, the patron said he leaned against a nearby vehicle to collect himself, but someone started yelling at him to get off their truck. The truck’s owner was identified as Ryan Lara.
Lara and another person started fighting with the patron, whose girlfriend was nearby and came to help break up the altercation, according to police. Shortly after that, the gunfire started, the couple told police.
Police were later called to that medical clinic where they found Lara, who told them he fired his gun in self-defense after he was jumped. Lara was arrested on one count of murder, but was released on bond and is due in court on April 27.
