The massive manhunt underway since Sunday in Texas ended Monday morning with fugitive Stephen Broderick in custody. Police were frantically searching for the former deputy sheriff after two women and a man were found murdered in Austin.
Manhunt ends without violence
According to Manor Police Chief Ryan Phipps, the manhunt ended when 41-year-old Stephen Broderick “was arrested without incident” around 7:30 a.m. local time on Monday “long a rural road in Manor.” The town is a suburb of Austin, Texas. Police say that “Broderick knew the three victims,” but weren’t ready to disclose details to the public.
Others, however have figured them out. One of the things which made this fugitive so dangerous is his familiarity with their methods. Broderick served with the Travis County Sheriff’s Office and resigned in disgrace after “he was arrested last year on a sexual assault charge.”
The manhunt began just before noon on Sunday when Austin Police officers arrived in response to a 911 call. As soon as they got there, the entire neighborhood was placed on high alert with a “reverse 911 call” which “went out to area residents warning about an active shooting situation.”
When officers arrived they found all three mortally wounded adults still alive but they unfortunately didn’t survive. Local news station KVUE did some digging into public records and report that “Broderick had a history of violence accusations.”
One of the victims prompting the statewide manhunt has been identified as the daughter of the former detective, Alyssa Broderick. Also murdered were Willie Simmons and an unnamed third person.
Simmons is described as “a senior at Elgin High School” where “Alyssa Broderick had withdrawn from Elgin ISD in the fall.” In June of last year, Broderick “was arrested and charged with sexual assault of a child.” Nine counts of it, involving the same child.
Patience and a smart lawyer
Along with child molestation charges, court records indicate Broderick “allegedly strangled a family member, and has been indicted on three counts of family violence assault.” Long before the manhunt was needed, he wore an ankle monitor “but it was later taken off.”
All you have to do is be patient and have a smart lawyer. His attorney argued successfully that “Broderick had worn the monitor for 142 days with no substantial violations and that it should be removed.” The state district judge agreed and now regrets leaving him “unsupervised months after his daughter and wife stated they feared for their safety.”
Liberal State District Judge Karen Sage would rather have a massive manhunt for a murder suspect than violate anyone’s civil rights. “she typically agrees to remove tracking devices when a defendant has shown a pattern of compliance and has not incurred any violations.”
“She also said she rarely keeps defendants on GPS tracking for more than 90 days if they have been compliant.” You can bet Broderick knew that.
Another huge hole in the liberal logic is that more gun laws are needed to prevent incidents like this but if the victims had been armed they might not be dead and the manhunt would have ended at the body in the doorway. “Broderick’s bail conditions required him to surrender all firearms and not obtain any new ones.” That didn’t work real well.
“Broderick’s wife applied for a protective order,” because she was worried about the safety of her children. “I’m afraid he will try to hurt me or my children, because these allegations have come out and he may lose his career.” She was right. “Stephen has prior military experience and is SWAT trained. If he wanted to hurt someone, he would know how,” she prophetically warned.
