Southeast Austin shooting suspect arrested after wounded in the groin, police say

A 45-year-old man being treated at a local hospital for a gunshot wound to the groin Monday was arrested after police accused him of shooting another man in Southeast Austin.

Officers responded to the 2100 block of East Oltorf Street just after 7 p.m. after reports of about 10 gunshots in the area between Interstate 35 and South Pleasant Valley Road, according to an arrest affidavit. A man was found at the address with a gunshot wound to the thigh, police said.

Austin police went to Dell Seton Medical Center to talk to the victim, who said a man named Cedric Buckhalter shot him over an argument he had with his girlfriend’s mother minutes before the shooting.

Although the affidavit does not say how Buckhalter was connected to the girlfriend’s mother, the man said his girlfriend’s mother told him as he left her home, “Oh, I got somebody for you.”

The man told police he walked a couple of blocks to a bus stop on East Oltorf Street when he heard Buckhalter calling his name, according to the affidavit. Buckhalter got out of his vehicle and walked toward him while pulling a semi-automatic handgun from his right pocket, police said.

Buckhalter made references to the argument the man had with his girlfriend’s mother, according to the affidavit. The man told police he put his hands in the air, but Buckhalter continued to walk toward him.

The man said he used his hand to swat the gun away, but Buckhalter pointed it back at him and fired two shots, according to the affidavit.

The man told police he stumbled backwards and grabbed his own gun out of his pocket and fired back.

Both Buckhalter and the man fell to the ground and continued shooting at each other, the man told police. The man said he ran across the street while Buckhalter got back into his vehicle and drove off. He later told police he believed he wounded Buckhalter.

While investigators interviewed the victim, Buckhalter was dropped off at the same hospital with two gunshot wounds: one to the outside of his right hip and another between his genitalia and his anus, police said.

Buckhalter refused to speak to detectives, police said. Officers arrested and charged him with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He remained in jail Wednesday with bail set at $250,000.