Man escapes after being robbed and shot

AUSTIN (KXAN) - A man riding his bike along Manchaca Road was robbed, held hostage and shot, but escaped with his life. The victim was riding his bike in the 9300 block of Manchaca shortly before 11 p.m. on Sunday.

James Perkins, 17, was arrested after the incident. Police identified a second suspect, Paul Rios. The teens face charges of robbery, engaging in criminal activity, attempted murder and first-degree aggravated kidnapping.

APD believes the three suspects have twice committed the same type of crime, and according to Sgt. Katrina Pruitt, "I would believe that they have probably done criminal activity before."

According to police reports, a man identified as Perkins approached the victim and asked if he could borrow his cell phone to make a call. The victim gave Perkins his phone but became concerned when he noticed that the male was not dialing a number. While asking for his phone back, the victim saw two Hispanic men approaching.

The victim feared a robbery and attempted to flee, but was tackled down an embankment by Perkins. One of the two other men allegedly handed Perkins a pistol and he fired it in the air.

The victim surrendered his wallet and Perkins demanded the PIN code to his ATM card and allegedly said he would shoot him if he did not give the code. Perkins went across the street to a Texaco station to withdraw money while the other two men held the victim captive, according to police.

Workesr at that convenience store watched the surveillance video Wednesday police took to help identify Perkins. The video shows a man matching Perkins' description walking into the store and up to the counter.

The manager said he had no idea his camera would help catch a criminal that night. The images seemed normal enough.

"That could have happened to anyone, like you and me," Binod Sressta said. "It could have happened to anyone."

When Perkins returned, the three men allegedly decided to kill the victim because they didn't enough money, police said, and Perkins told the other two men to leave.

Police said Perkins held the gun to the victim's head, but the victim fled towards a drainage tunnel on the side of the emankment. Perkins fired at the victim and hit him in the buttocks, but the victim was able to get away, police reported.

Monday crime analyists noticed that the crime report closely matched another Austin Police Department case from Friday, Aug. 13. In both cases a black male asked the victim to borrow a cell phone and then two Hispanic males approached. In both cases the suspect fired into the air.

In the previous case the victim identified the suspect as Perkins because he knew him from Akins High School where they both attended. Perkins was then identified in a photo line-up by the second victim.

"I believe that if we had not got the leads on this, they had the potential to kill somebody the next time that they decided to do this," said Pruitt on Tuesday afternoon. "And they're very lucky that they didn't kill somebody this time."