Austin, Texas: The family of an Austin, Texas, man is seeking answers after he was fatally shot by police last month on his front porch following a late-night emergency call by a neighbor.
Video and audio show Austin police officers arrived Nov. 15, yelled “drop your gun,” then fired at Rajan Moonesinghe, who was holding an AR-15-style weapon.
The tech entrepreneur in Texas, Moonesinghe wasn’t given ample time to drop a rifle he was carrying on his own front porch before he was fatally shot by police last month, his devastated family says.
Rajan “Raj” Moonesinghe, 33, had returned from a trip and suspected his home had been burglarized during the early-morning hours of Nov. 15. That’s when he held a rifle outside his front door and was encountered by an Austin police officer who quickly shot him while almost simultaneously ordering Moonesinghe to drop the gun, relatives said.
Moonesinghe’s mother, Ruth, and brother, Johann, said they were heartbroken and demanded answers from Austin police as to why their loved one was killed so quickly before being given a reasonable amount of time to drop the weapon. “He did nothing wrong,” Johann Moonesinghe said. “He had a gun but he was defending his house and he didn’t point the gun. He was not menacing. He didn’t look like he was going to shoot anyone.”
