The gunman who killed Texas SWAT Officer Jorge Pastore in a shootout that also left two hostages dead was wearing body armor and night vision goggles — and was on the FBI’s terror watchlist, according to reports.
A search warrant for the suspect’s south Austin home — the scene of Saturday’s deadly shootout — unearthed bomb-making materials inside, calling for help from the FBI’s Evidence Recovery Team, according to KXAN.
“Cutting instruments, body armor and any tactical gear to include firearms were all said to be worn or used by the suspect,” reads the warrant, which noted that it’s “not uncommon for people with a gun, body armor or night vision to make homemade explosives.”
Neither the suspect nor the dead hostages had been officially identified as of early Wednesday.
However, a local organization called the Round Rock Area Muslims said they were all family members of a “beloved brother” who was well-known in the local community.
They were mom Eman Ahmed El Nemr-Nassar and two of her sons, Ahmed Mohammed Nassar, 35, and Riad Mohamed Nassar, 32, according to a group member’s since-deleted post shared by the Daily Mail.
It was not known which of the two brothers was the shooter — but the FBI had investigated members of the family and had the suspect on the terror watchlist, law enforcement sources told the Mail.
Following the shooting on Saturday, FBI agents went door to door asking for more information about the family — who mostly kept to themselves, according to neighbors.
“We would see them and they didn’t speak,” one neighbor, Barbara Nichola, told CBS Austin. “They just kept their heads down and went in their house.
“They were not rude, they just didn’t respond.”
Another neighbor, Mauricio Bejanaro, said the two adult sons “were very quiet,” and he only ever got to speak to their father, whom he said moved out a few months ago.
Pastore was fatally shot as part of a SWAT response when responding officers earlier backed out of the house because of gunfire.
The hero officer — who previously responded to the 2018 Parkland High School shooting while an EMT in Florida — was the first Austin police officer killed in the line of duty in 10 years.
The city is set to honor him with a procession through the streets of Austin prior to his funeral on Friday.
Pastore joined the Austin Police Department in 2019 as a cadet, and graduated from the police academy in January 2020.
Over his three years with the department, Pastore made the SWAT Gold team — which meant he was on reserve if full-time SWAT members could not respond to an incident, the interim police chief posted on X.
He was also part of the department’s CAST division — the team called on to take out active shooters — and the SRT or riot team.
Prior to joining the Austin Police Department, Pastore was living in southern Florida, where he responded to the Parkland High School shooting in 2018 as an EMT.
“He was a paramedic in Florida, and he was one of the first to arrive after the Parkland school shooting happened,” Michael Bullock, president-elect of the Austin Police Association, told Daily Mail.
“After that happened, he made the decision to be part of something that worked to prevent that stuff from happening, and not having to come in after it’s all happened.
“He embodied the very best of this profession and of this department — that you do your job, and your role is to be able to fight for other people no matter what the danger may be,” Bullock continued.
“To show up to that scene, to know that other officers had already been shot at and that someone is actively trying to harm and kill other people … with no hesitation to go through and try to face that evil — that’s the most honorable way that anyone in this profession can probably go.”
But others see Pastore’s death as a result of the city lacking a contract with the police department as lawmakers seek to curb police responsibility.
“I don’t think we have enough police officers, and everyone that we lose is going to be a tragedy, especially if we lose them this way,” Brad Swail told CBS Austin.
“There’s been a big movement recently to decrease the responsibilities of the police or decrease the number of police, and I think that the City of Austin is feeling repercussions of that.”
The Austin Police Department is now offering men and women a $15,000 sign-on bonus to join the force, and Bullock said he is hopeful that people will start to see its worth.
“I hope people recognize that our department is worth fighting for because of people like Officer Pastore. The legacy he leaves behind and the work ethic he had in his commitment to this department that people hear in this profession,” Bullock said.
“I hope it shows people that this department is worth supporting, that these officers deserve their support and their love for everything that they do. Because it’s not easy.
“But people like Officer Pastore just exemplify the very best of what our department and the profession have to offer.”
