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Shocking video shows Austin tech entrepreneur Rajan ‘Raj’ Munsinghe gunned down by local police as he searched the perimeter of his home.
Munisinghe, 33, a successful tech entrepreneur who moved to the area five years ago, was found dead on the front porch of his home in the South Austin neighborhood on Nov. 15. I wasn’t?
At 12:30 a.m., Mooninghe told a neighbor that someone was inside the home and was going to call 911, the WSJ reported.
Police arrived on the scene five minutes later to find Munsinghe had fired two shots in his own living room – the four shots that killed the businessman.
Raj Mooninghe, 33, was checking around his home moments before he was fatally shot by Austin police, believing someone had broken in.
Across the street from his house, the neighbor’s bodyguard had already called the police to report what Munsinghe was doing.
When the watchman called to the dispatcher, ‘Something in the house seemed frightened.’
‘He is pointing the gun inside the house,’ Munsingh said, before calling into the living room before firing shots inside.
As soon as they arrived, Officer Daniel Sanchez yelled, ‘Drop the gun,’ even though he started shooting before he could finish his sentence.
Bullets travel faster than the speed of sound, so Mooninge didn’t hear anything before he was hit.
The 33-year-old Sri Lankan was taken to hospital where he succumbed to his injuries shortly afterwards. No one else was injured during the standoff, and police did not find a break-in at the South Austin home.
According to a preliminary investigation by the victim’s family, Munsinghe was hit four times. A full medical report by the county medical examiner has yet to be released.
Raj’s South Austin four-bedroom, four-bathroom home was shot in front of him
33-year-old tech entrepreneur Raj Mooninghe, known to the community as a selfless friend and family member and a hardworking businessman.
Austin-headquartered InKind, the Mooninghe brothers’ successful financial technology startup, is looking to radically expand in the course of 2023.
The Austin Police Department has not yet commented on the shooting. Sanchez has been a licensed officer on the force for about three years.
The shooting remains under investigation and Officer Sanchez is on administrative leave. His lawyers said, ‘He followed his training to protect life.’
Austin Mayor Steve Adler described the deaths as tragic and said he was waiting for more information before commenting.
‘I have a lot of questions, as I know the family does,’ he said. ‘Why did it happen?’
Along with his older brother Johannes, Raj runs InKind, a financial technology company that provides advance financing to restaurants.
The company has annual revenue of $48 million and plans to grow Austin’s 50-person workforce to 180 employees by the end of 2023.
Munsinghe’s brother Johannes has vowed to ‘do everything in my power to prevent this from happening again’, saying he prefers to work with local authorities in the effort, but will pay them if necessary. Raj is seen here with his mother
In the year Raj Mooninghe, who was shot dead by police while searching his home for gun-toting criminals on November 15.
Following his brother’s tragic death, Johannes is now uncertain about the company’s future and refuses to ask anyone to relocate to Austin following his brother’s fatal shooting because he isn’t sure it’s safe.
Now Rajan has set up a fund in his brother’s memory called the David Munsinghe Foundation.
The organization’s goal is to prevent a shooting like his brother from ever happening again.
This could include investing in non-lethal police equipment, implicit bias training, putting up billboards across the country warning tech startups against relocating to Austin.
Johannes has promised to use all his resources to ensure that no one he and his family have to go through – he says he prefers to work with the city, but if they won’t work with us, I’ll pass them on.
The effort has raised $27,000 so far, not including a $1 million commitment from Doug Ludlow, CEO of MainStreet, a small business assistance company Raj has known since childhood.
Ludlow told the Wall Street Journal that other US cities are in line to become the next startup hub if Austin can’t ease its police force.
There is a huge competition to create new startup hubs. If it’s not a safe community, especially for people of color, you don’t create a tech hub here. Full stop,’ he said.
Johan said: ‘I’m sure there are many victims in our area who have gone through this and they haven’t had the resources that we have.
‘We will do whatever it takes to make our voices heard. I promised Raj when he was buried. “Raj, I will be an unstoppable force of justice for you,” I said. And I make sure this never happens to another family.”
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