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- Target store shooter fired randomly and had a history of mental illness, police say</p>
<p>JAMIE STENGLE and JIM VERTUNO August 13, 2025 at 3:40 AM</p>
<p>1 / 2Texas Target ShootingPolice monitor the scene near a Target after a shooting in Austin, Texas, Monday, Aug. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Stephen Spillman)</p>
<p>AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Texas man who fatally shot three people in a Target parking lot, including a 4-year-old child and her grandfather, had a history of mental illness and opened fire randomly, police said Tuesday.</p>
<p>Police say 32-year-old Ethan Nieneker killed a Target worker gathering shopping carts Monday afternoon outside the store in Austin, then killed a man and his granddaughter before stealing their car.</p>
<p>Police Chief Lisa Davis said Nieneker had a history of mental health problems, but she was unaware of any specific diagnosis.</p>
<p>"What happened yesterday was an unprovoked and deliberate attack, a deliberate act of violence," Davis said at a news conference. "Innocent lives were taken in broad daylight in a place where people should feel safe to run their everyday errands and to live their everyday lives."</p>
<p>The violence sent store employees and shoppers fleeing for cover. Police say Nieneker stole two cars during the getaway that ended with his arrest on the other side of the city.</p>
<p>Officers found Neineker walking naked after he ditched his clothes in a portable toilet, police said. He was holding a Bible and was subdued with a Taser when he he would not comply with demands.</p>
<p>"He said that he was Jesus," Austin police Sgt. Nathan Sexton said.</p>
<p>Nieneker was being held Tuesday on capital murder charges. Jail records do not list an attorney for him.</p>
<p>Online court records show he had a history of arrests for domestic violence and assault, and was arrested several times in recent years in both Travis County, which includes Austin, and neighboring Williamson County.</p>
<p>His arrests in Travis County included misdemeanors for criminal mischief and driving while intoxicated, and three arrests on felony domestic violence charges. He was convicted of a charge of assault causing bodily injury family violence in 2016 and briefly sentenced to jail.</p>
<p>Another charge within days of the 2016 episode was dismissed, according to court records. It was not immediately clear if those two charges were related. Another charge of felony assault on a family or household member in 2019 was dismissed three years later when prosecutors could not locate the victim.</p>
<p>Williamson County records show repeated run-ins with law enforcement, including two cases of misdemeanor family violence in 2015 that were later dismissed. He was also convicted of possession of marijuana in 2012 and entered a no contest plea to a charge of criminal mischief in 2016.</p>
<p>Monday's shooting came as back-to-school shopping was in full swing ahead of the upcoming academic year.</p>
<p>Police said that after the shooting, Nieneker stole a car from the store parking lot, wrecked that car and then stole another from a dealership before being captured about 20 miles (32 kilometers) away, in south Austin, where he was taken into custody. Police said offices used a Taser to detain him.</p>
<p>The Target shooting comes just over two weeks after an attack at a Walmart store in Michigan. A man accused of stabbing 11 people at the Traverse City store on July 26 has been charged with terrorism and multiple counts of attempted murder.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Stengle contributed to this report from Dallas.</p>
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