A chilling video shows Austin tech entrepreneur Rajan ‘Raj’ Moonesinghe being shot dead by local police as he inspected the perimeter of his home for an intruder with a gun in his hands.
Moonesinghe, 33, a successful tech entrepreneur who moved to the area about five years ago, was murdered on Nov. 15 on the front porch of his home in an affluent South Austin neighborhood, saying, “It wasn’t me.” ‘
At around 12:30 p.m., Moonesinghe told a neighbor that someone was in his house and that he was going to call 911. reported the WSJ.
Police arrived on the scene just five minutes later, shortly after Moonesinghe fired two shots into his own living room – and fired four shots that killed the businessman.
Raj Moonesinghe, 33, shortly before he was fatally shot by Austin police while conducting an inspection of his home, which he believed someone had entered as an intruder
Across the street from his house, a private guard belonging to his neighbor had already called the police to report what Moonesinghe was doing.
The guard said in a call to a dispatcher, “He almost seems to be afraid of something in his house.”
“He’s pointing the gun at the inside of his house,” he said, before Moonesinghe called into his living room before firing inside.
Almost as soon as they arrived, Officer Daniel Sanchez shouted “drop the gun,” though he began firing before finishing his sentence.
It is likely that Moonesinghe had not heard anything before being hit, as bullets travel faster than the speed of sound.
The 33-year-old of Sri Lankan descent was taken to hospital, where he died of his injuries shortly afterwards. No one else was injured in the encounter, and police found no intruder at the South Austin home.
According to a preliminary autopsy commissioned by the victim’s family, Moonesinghe was shot four times. A full medical report has yet to be released by the county medical examiner.
33-year-old tech entrepreneur Raj Moonesinghe, who was known to his community as a selfless friend and relatives and a hard-working businessman
Austin headquarters of the Moonesinghe brothers’ successful financial technology startup, InKind, looking to expand radically over the course of 2023
Austin police have not yet commented on the shooting. Sanchez has been a licensed police officer for nearly three years.
The shooting is still under investigation and Officer Sanchez is on administrative leave. His lawyers said he was “trained to protect lives.”
Austin Mayor Steve Adler called the fatal accident a tragedy and added that he is waiting for more information before passing judgment.
“I have a lot of questions, as I know the family has,” he said. “Why did it happen?”
Along with his older brother Johann, Raj ran a financial technology company called InKind, which provides upfront financing to restaurants.
The company has annual revenues of $48 million and had plans to grow the 50-person Austin workforce to 180 employees by the end of 2023.
Moonesinghe’s brother, Johann, has vowed to “use all my resources to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” adding that he prefers to work with local officials, but will contact them if necessary surpass.
Raj Moonesinghe who was fatally shot by police on 15 November while inspecting his home for intruders armed with a rifle
After his brother’s tragic death, Johann is now uncertain about the company’s future and hesitant to ask anyone to move to Austin after his brother’s fatal shooting, unsure if it is safe.
He has now set up a fund in memory of his brother named the Rajan David Moonesinghe Foundation.
The goal of the organization is to prevent shootings like his brother’s from happening again.
This could include investing in non-lethal police tools, implicit bias training, posting billboards across the country warning tech startups not to move to Austin.
Johann has vowed to use all of his resources to make sure no one else has to go through what he and his family are going through – adding that he would prefer to work with the city, “but if they don’t start working with us, I will exceed them.’
The effort has so far raised $27,000, not including a $1 million pledge from Doug Ludlow, the CEO of small business company MainStreet, who had known Raj since he was a boy.
Ludlow told the Wall Street Journal that if Austin fails to resolve its issues with the police, other US cities will be lining up to become the next startup hub.
“There is huge competition to create new startup hubs. If it’s not a safe community, especially for people of color, you’re not creating a tech hub here. Full stop,” he said.
“There are a lot of victims out there in our position that I’m sure have been through this and didn’t have the resources that we have,” Johann said.
We will do everything we can to make our voice heard. When Raj was buried, I made a promise to him. I said, ‘Raj, I will be an unstoppable force of justice for you. And I will make sure this doesn’t happen to any other family.”