Teen with modified pistol arrested outside downtown Austin bar
AUSTIN, Texas - A 17-year-old was arrested and charged with multiple felonies after he allegedly tried to get into a downtown Austin bar with a handgun.
Xavier Sistrunk has been charged with third-degree felony places weapons prohibited, third-degree felony possession of a prohibited weapon and state-jail felony possession of a controlled substance, according to an arrest affidavit.
Court paperwork says that around 1:30 a.m. on Nov. 12, an Austin police officer was flagged down by bar staff in the 400 block of E. 6th Street about someone trying to get in with a handgun in his waistband. Bar staff there turned him away after overhearing him talking to a friend about having the gun and the friend telling him to "just go put it in the car."
Staff described the person as a Black male wearing a red hooded sweatshirt with white numbers on the back who was last seen walking down E. 6th Street towards Trinity Street. The officer, while talking to staff, noticed someone matching that description walking out of another bar. Staff then confirmed to the officer that that was in fact the person they believed to have the gun, court paperwork says.
Xavier Sistrunk
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The person, later identified by police as Sistrunk, was seen by officers walking along E 6th then crossing at E 6th and Trinity while the crosswalk sign displayed a red hand for stop. Officers initially detained him for that, announcing themselves as police and taking hold of him. Officers in the affidavit state that Sistrunk "immediately tensed up and dropped his hands down towards his front waistband and began reaching for something in the area."
Officers gave commands for him to "stop reaching" but Sistrunk continued to pull away and reach for his waistband, court paperwork says. An officer reported tackling Sistrunk to the ground and detaining him with handcuffs, before searching him and finding a handgun tucked in his underwear.
The gun was identified as a Glock .40 caliber pistol that had been modified with a "Glock switch" to make it automatic, says the affidavit.
A plastic bag with 0.6 grams of cocaine was also found in Sistrunk's pocket, court paperwork says.