No motive yet in Texas Capitol shooting

AUSTIN (KXAN) - A Houston man is state police custody after gunshots were fired on the south steps of the Texas Capitol around noon on Thursday.

No injuries are reported.

The suspect is Fausto Cardenas, 24, from the Houston area. He was taken into custody immediately after the shooting. The motive for the shooting was unclear late Thursday.

Cardenas is charged with deadly conduct - discharging a firearm at individuals, a third-degree felony punishable by two to 10 years and up to $10,000 in fines.

“I commend the Texas Department of Public Safety troopers who responded swiftly to a shooter on the south steps of the State Capitol," said Texas Gov. Rick Perry. "Thanks to their efforts, no one was injured, and the shooter was apprehended immediately and taken in to custody.”

Police said he fired several shots from a handgun on the south steps of the Capitol at 12:15 p.m. The building was re-opened to visitors a few hours later, though the south entrance remained closed.

Capitol staffers with Houston GOP Sen. Dan Patrick said that minutes before the incident, the man followed the senator's legal counsel into their third-floor office and asked to speak to her privately. The attorney told him she would be glad to help him, but he insisted on a private conversation in Patrick's own office. She refused repeatedly, and he finally left, said Logan Spence, Patrick's chief of staff.

The man never said what he wanted, but moments later, he was on the south steps firing a handgun. 

"I was in the Rotunda (just inside the door) when we all heard this happening," said Erika Aguilar, a reporter with KUT-FM 90.5, the local NPR station. "It honestly sounded like someone was knocking on the glass door. You heard about five knocks, at least I did. Looked like nobody knew exactly what was going on. There were a few people around there, people on the ground floor. They kind of gasped in confusion, and all of a sudden you heard somebody say, "Shots fired!"

"You see ten troopers, maybe a little less, on top of a guy who was squirming around trying to get out of there. They had him pretty secure though."

Witnesses say he was apprehended almost immediately.

"We had just done a Capitol tour and [had] walked over to the Visitor's Center (on the southeast corner of the Capitol grounds)," said Angela Woodring, a witness. "As we walked out, we heard five or six really distinctive pop-pop-pop-pop-pops. And I looked over and said, 'What the heck is going on?' We saw the security guards rush up on this gentlemen on the front steps."

"After about five minutes, they picked the guy up, had his hands and legs tied, put him in the back of a police car and drove away with him."

Immediately after the incident, more than half a dozen Texas Department of Public Safety cars descended on the Capitol, and officers toting rifles surrounded the building.

The officers secured the Capitol's third floor around noon, said Tristan Letscher, police communications operator for the DPS. DPS investigators located a vehicle believed to be linked to Cardenas on the west side of the Capitol after the shootings. Dogs were brought in to search the outside of the car. A state trooper was placed in front of the car until they have a warrant to search the inside and tow it from the street.

The building was in lockdown until 2 p.m. State employees were ordered to stay in their offices during the lockdown.

The only metal detectors in the Capitol right now are in the galleries of the House and Senate - although requests have been made to put those detectors in the entrances. When asked if there will be any change of procedure, Tela Mange of the DPS said officials are always evaluating their security response at the Capitol - but that security issues are up to the lawmakers and building administrators.

Even on a normal day, when there is no security alert, there is a "heavy presence" of troopers at the Capitol - stationed on all sides of the building outside, in the main halls inside, and throughout the building.

See what the scene was like during the lockdown below:

KXAN staff reporters Blair Shiff, Karen Brooks, Shannon Powell, Nanci Wilson, Erin Cargile, Carla Castano, and Josh Hinkle contributed to this report.