Authorities have identified the Travis County sheriff’s deputy who was killed early Monday as Sgt. Craig Hutchinson, a veteran officer of 32 years who was set to retire in September.
Travis County Sheriff Greg Hamilton said Hutchinson called in on the radio that people were running out of the backyard of his home in southwest Round Rock around 1:22 a.m. Hamilton said officers arrived to find the deputy shot in the yard about 10 minutes after the call.
The sheriff said the shooting appears to be part of a robbery and that investigators so far do not think the incident was an ambush or a targeted attack. He said there was no word on any suspects but that the area had seen other burglaries recently.
Hamilton reflected on the life of the deputy, noting that Hutchinson was his field training officer.
“He taught me everything I know,” he said. “This guy was a big teddy bear.”
Hamilton later recalled how when he started at the sheriff’s office in 1985, “I worked in the jail with him. He went out on patrol before I did,” Hamilton said. “He was my field training officer, so this is very near and dear to me.”
