Arrest warrant filed for shooting of Topgolf security officer

AUSTIN (KXAN) — An arrest warrant was issued for a man allegedly connected to a shooting that injured a private security officer at north Austin Topgolf in early December, according to court documents filed Wednesday.

Documents showed 34-year-old Brett James Eldred was charged with aggravated assault against a security officer.

On Dec. 2 at approximately 10:15 p.m., security staff at Topgolf escorted a man, later identified as Eldred, off the property for urinating onto a set of stairs inside the business.

Eldred was part of a work group that rented an area at Topgolf for a holiday party. The affidavit said he was a guest of an employee of the group.

According to documents, Eldred was described as “intoxicated, argumentative, and belligerent when asked to leave.” The documents also said that as he was escorted off the property, he “taunted, threatened and used a racial slur directed at [one of the security officers] who is African American.”

At approximately 11:45 p.m., Austin Police officers responded to a disturbance call in the 1300 block of Koenig Lane. Officers found a woman in a disarranged apartment, and she said Eldred, her “now ex-boyfriend,” came into the residence, threw things around and assaulted her co-worker who had returned home with her from Topgolf.

The affidavit said the woman told officers she had left her company holiday party where Eldred had “gotten into it with employees and vowed to return to Top Golf to ‘Settle it.’”

On Dec. 3 shortly after midnight, APD officers responded to a shooting in the Topgolf parking lot, and one security officer was found in the parking lot with two gunshot wounds, according to documents.

Another security officer at the scene said he recognized one of the people involved as a man he had escorted out of the business earlier that evening.

The security officers were patrolling the parking lot when they were approached by Eldred and two others from a truck. The three then began assaulting the security officers.

The affidavit said all the men involved in the assault directed racial slurs toward one of the officers, and during the assault, one of the men fired two gunshots, hitting one of the security officers before the three got back into the truck and left.

Surveillance video confirmed the events, according to police.

The officer shot was taken to the hospital and later identified Eldred during a photo line-up as one of the suspects involved in the incident.

As of Friday, Eldred was not booked in the Travis County jail on the assault charge.