Police Arrest One Suspect, Hunting for Another After Austin Shooting Leaves 14 Injured

By Associated Press

13 June 21

olice in Austin, Texas, say they have arrested one man and are searching for another in connection with a shooting early on Saturday that injured 14 people in the city’s downtown entertainment district.

The Austin police department said in a news release that the US Marshals Lone Star fugitive task force assisted in making the arrest, but it provided no other details other than to say it is continuing to follow up on leads for the suspect still at large.

Interim police chief Joseph Chacon said the shooting happened around 1.30am on a street packed with bars and barricaded off from vehicle traffic. He said investigators believe it began as a dispute between two parties.

Chacon said both suspects were male, but declined to disclose details such as whether both fired shots, saying the investigation was ongoing.

“Most of the victims were innocent bystanders, but we’re still sorting out all of the victims to see what their involvement is in this case,” Chacon said.

The mass shooting – one of at least three in the US overnight – sparked panic along 6th Street, a popular nightlife destination in the city that’s home to the University of Texas.

One witness, Matt Perlstein, told KXAN-TV that he was waiting with a friend to enter a bar when gunfire erupted.

“Everything was totally fine,” Perlstein said, then gunfire erupted. “We just heard like ... a bunch of gunshots going off. Everyone got on the ground. We couldn’t even comprehend what was going on at the time.”

Eleven victims were in stable condition, and two victims were in critical condition. No fatalities have been reported.

Chacon said at a briefing that there were initial reports of three shooting victims in the area around 6th street. That was soon upgraded when emergency services reached the scene.

“Our officers responded very quickly,” Chacon said. “They were able to immediately begin life-saving measures for many of these patients, including applications of tourniquets; applications of chest seals.”

Chacon also said some officers transported patients to hospitals in their police cruisers due to the nature of the scene, where it was hard to contain the crowd and get ambulances to those who were injured.

“Our aggravated assault and homicide unit detectives are out investigating, as well as members of our organized crime and gang units to see if this incident was gang-related. It’s not clear what sparked this off, but out of an abundance of caution we have notified the the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force.”

Austin’s mayor, Steve Adler, made a series of comments on Twitter.

“The uptick in gun violence locally is part of a disturbing rise in gun violence across the country as we exit the pandemic,” he said.

“APD and the City Council have initiated multiple violence prevention efforts in response – but this crisis requires a broader, coordinated response from all levels of government.

“One thing is clear – greater access to firearms does not equal greater public safety.”

The Austin attack was one of three mass shootings across the country overnight. In Chicago, a woman was killed and nine other people were wounded when two men opened fire on a group standing on a sidewalk in the Chatham neighborhood on the city’s South Side. The shooters got away and hadn’t been identified by mid-afternoon Saturday.

In the south Georgia city of Savannah, police said one man was killed and seven other people were wounded in a mass shooting Friday evening, police said. Two of the wounded are children – an 18-month-old and a 13-year-old.

Savannah’s police chief, Roy Minter Jr, said the shooting may be linked to an ongoing dispute between two groups, citing reports of gunshots being fired at the same apartment complex earlier in the week.

“It’s very disturbing what we’re seeing across the country and the level of gun violence that we’re seeing across the country,” he told reporters Saturday. “It’s disturbing and it’s senseless.”

The attacks come amid an easing of Covid-19 pandemic restrictions in much of the country, including Chicago, which lifted many of its remaining safeguards on Friday.