Austyn Self. (Woodbury County Jail photo.)
A Sioux City man is jailed in the weekend shooting death of a woman on the city’s north side.
Police say 23-year-old Austyn Self is charged with first-degree murder and three counts of child endangerment. Police Sergeant Tom Gill says officers were dispatched to a house around 9:40 p.m. Saturday during a 9-1-1 call where a woman was pleading for help.
“Approximately two minutes into the phone call as police were heading to the scene, our dispatchers heard a gunshot, there was one gunshot,” Gill says. “They heard the female screaming on the line. When officers arrived on scene, they didn’t make entry right away. They called the male party out and he came out. He was cooperative. He came out with his hands up.”
Gill says officers found the 31-year-old woman in the home with a gunshot injury to her abdomen. “She was slowly breathing at this time,” Gill says. “They did have medical on scene. Medical began working on the female in the house. They then transported her to the hospital.” The woman whose name hasn’t been released, died.
Gill says the suspect and victim were in a relationship. “They do live together. They do have at least one child together,” Gill says. “There was three children in the house, all under five years of age. That’s why the three counts of child endangerment.”
Self is being held in the Woodbury County Jail.
(By Woody Gottburg, KSCJ, Sioux City)