{"id":177404,"date":"2026-02-24T03:29:39","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T03:29:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/177404\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T03:29:39","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T03:29:39","slug":"witness-says-off-duty-officer-helped-prevent-worse-outcome-in-barbershop-shooting-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/177404\/","title":{"rendered":"Witness says off-duty officer helped prevent worse outcome in barbershop shooting"},"content":{"rendered":"

PFLUGERVILLE, Texas \u2014 The Travis County Sheriff’s Office has identified the suspect killed in a shooting involving an off-duty Austin Police officer<\/a> last Friday as Jefferson Josue Rodas of Pflugerville.<\/p>\n

Officials say Rodas walked into Seven Fades Hair Studio in Pflugerville last Friday and opened fire before the off-duty officer returned fire, striking and killing Rodas.<\/p>\n

Rojer Denovo, who said he was sitting outside Red\u2019s Smoking BBQ on Friday evening, said he heard about eight gunshots, something he described as unusual for the area.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then I heard cars coming by, like 12 cops. And then I saw a murder truck,\u201d Denovo said. \u201cAnd so I just saw that it was a big scene.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Travis County Sheriff\u2019s Office said a second person was shot in the incident and fled to a nearby home to ask for help.<\/p>\n

Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis praised the officer\u2019s actions, saying, \u201cHe absolutely was a hero and probably saved multiple lives inside this barbershop.\u201d<\/p>\n

PREVIOUS COVERAGE| Suspect dead after opening fire inside NE Austin barbershop, off-duty officer hailed hero<\/a><\/p>\n

KEYE<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Michael Bullock, president of the Austin Police Association, agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no doubts that if it weren’t for him, we’d be looking at homicides or multiple people that are injured as a result of a guy actively shooting inside of a business. So, absolutely heroic effort on his behalf,\u201d Bullock said.<\/p>\n

Bullock said the officer\u2019s response reflected training and preparation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey’re always preparing mentally for what may come. It may never come, but this highlights that sometimes it does, and if you’re not prepared for it, then you’re not going to be able to act as we should, and this officer was very prepared,\u201d Bullock said.<\/p>\n

Bullock said he has spoken with the officer since the incident. \u201cHe’s doing great, and so he has done a phenomenal job both the night of and afterwards,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Denovo also credited the officer for preventing the situation from becoming worse. \u201cIt was good the cop was there, it was good, because it wouldn\u2019t be worse,\u201d he said. \u201cThat was really good that he was there at the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the investigation continues, Davis said, \u201cIn the days to come, there’ll be more information that’s released.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PFLUGERVILLE, Texas \u2014 The Travis County Sheriff’s Office has identified the suspect killed in a shooting involving an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":{"0":"post-177404","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-austin","9":"tag-austin-headlines","10":"tag-austin-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}