The manhunt for former Austin sheriff’s detective Stephen Broderick ended with his arrest on Monday morning.
He was arrested without incident after motorists spotted a suspicious man walking along a highway at 7:30 a.m.
As he was placed in handcuffs, police removed a loaded handgun from his waistband.
Broderick, 41, was wanted in the shooting deaths of his ex-wife, Amanda Broderick, their adopted teenage daughter, Alyssa, and the girl’s boyfriend, Willie Simmons III, 18.
Travis County court records shows Amanda Broderick, 34, filed for a restraining order in June 2020 after her daughter, Alyssa, 17, accused her father of touching her inappropriately.
Alyssa said Broderick had raped her repeatedly in the past. The protective order was approved by a judge about three weeks after Amanda first accused Broderick of raping Alyssa.
In her application, Amanda (pictured) said she was “afraid he will try to hurt me and my children.” She said Broderick was “SWAT trained” and “If he wanted to hurt someone, he would know how.”
In June 2020, three days after the alleged rape, U.S. Marshals arrested Broderick. He was booked into the Travis County Jail, where he spent 16 days before posting a bail of $50,000.
The former Travis County sheriff’s detective was placed on administrative leave. He later lost his job.
A judge ordered him to wear a GPS ankle monitor and he was prohibited from possessing firearms, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by KXAN News.
Broderick was prohibited from contacting or going within 200 yards of the teenager.
In court documents, Alyssa said she was afraid that “a protective order will be just a piece of paper” to her father.
In November, a judge ordered the ankle monitor to be removed. Broderick’s lawyer argued that his client wore the GPS monitor for nearly 150 days with no violations.
On Sunday, Broderick arranged a meeting with Amanda for a scheduled visit with the couple’s minor son. Broderick rammed his car into Amanda’s vehicle at an apartment complex in northwest Austin.
Broderick fired multiple shots, killing all three victims, before fleeing the scene on foot, police said in a statement.
Responding officers found the three victims with gunshot wounds lying near the two vehicles. They were pronounced dead at the scene.
The couple’s minor son was not injured. A witness removed the boy from the scene and turned him over to Austin police officers.
