The suspect arrested in Saturday’s Austin Central Library shooting has also been linked to another shooting on a city bus earlier that day, an arrest affidavit shows.
Harold Keene, 55, was arrested Saturday in connection with a midday shooting in a bathroom at the library that left one person injured, according to the affidavit. He is also accused of shooting another person on a CapMetro bus after pointing a gun at a woman and her child.
Police responded to reports of a shooting in a sixth-floor restroom at the library shortly after noon Saturday. Security footage showed a man in a gray hoodie leaving the restroom soon after the victim fled, the affidavit said. The footage then showed the man boarding a CapMetro bus headed west on Cesar Chavez Street. CapMetro provided security footage showing the man exiting the bus at the Brodie Oaks shopping center and walking through the Olive Garden parking lot.
Police located and arrested a man matching the suspect’s description at 1:22 p.m. at 4006 South Lamar Blvd, near a Starbucks. The affidavit said Keene had a stolen handgun and initially gave officers a false name and birth date, but he was identified as Keene after being taken to police headquarters. Officers later identified him as the same man involved in the earlier CapMetro bus shooting.
According to the affidavit, just before 2 a.m. Saturday, a passenger reported being on a bus with a man described as “mentally unstable.” The man — later identified as Keene — asked for the passenger’s Dr Pepper, which he gave him. The passenger said Keene then began rambling about the CIA and conspiracies before pulling out a pistol and pointing it at another passenger and her daughter. The passenger said he confronted Keene, who then pulled out a bag “believed to be crystal methamphetamine” and ate it.
The passenger alerted the driver, who stopped the bus near the corner of 32nd and Guadalupe streets. As the passenger got off, he said Keene stood at the front of the bus pointing the gun at him. Keene then allegedly fired a single shot, grazing the man’s hip, before fleeing on a scooter headed south on Guadalupe Street, according to the affidavit.
In an interview with police, Keene admitted using the stolen handgun to shoot both the bus and library victims, the affidavit said.
Keene faces 10 criminal charges, according to jail records. The felony counts include three charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon; one first-degree charge of manufacturing or delivering a controlled substance between 4 and 200 grams; and one third-degree charge of tampering with physical evidence. He also faces two motions to revoke probation and misdemeanor charges of deadly conduct, making a terroristic threat and failure to identify.
Court records show Keene has an extensive criminal history. In April, he was charged with making a terroristic threat for allegedly pointing a gun at an employee of HireQuest, an employment agency in North Austin. In May 2024, he was charged with assault while jailed at the Travis County Correctional Complex in Del Valle. That charge stemmed from a fight over a chess board with another inmate, according to an affidavit. A sheriff’s deputy who reviewed security footage said Keene punched the inmate, who chose to press charges. Court records show that case was dismissed because Keene was “receiving treatment through felony probation.”
Court records also show a criminal record under the name Harold Newton King, an alias of Keene’s. According to those records, Keene served jail time for marijuana possession, failure to identify, family violence and evading arrest. Records show Keene was also charged with felony robbery in Milwaukee, Wisc. in the late 1980s.