Austin Police are asking for help locating a suspect who fired a gun during an altercation on East Sixth Street in the early morning hours of Sunday, just after bar closing time.
APD Assistant Chief Raul Munguia said a fight broke out on the sidewalk in the 300 block of East Sixth Street, near Vice bar, and “within seconds” someone pulled out a gun. Witnesses, including cops standing nearby, said they heard just a single shot fired, but at least four individuals were wounded, Munguia said, but none seriously. “It’s very fortunate,” he said. One woman was hit in the knee, a man was struck in his calf. Others appeared to have “flesh wounds,” he said. After the gun went off “everyone took off running,” Munguia said. “It was a stampede going all different directions. There was chaos, you could tell [from] the radio [transmissions].”
The shooter is still at large, though Munguia said there were plenty of eyewitnesses who have provided helpful information, including one witness who said the shooter appeared to be a Hispanic male wearing a white shirt with blood on it who took off running down an alley. When police searched the alley they found a handgun in a Dumpster. Police are now culling witness statements and video footage from surveillance cameras and from area businesses to try to identify the gunman.
Anyone with information about the shooting should call CrimeStoppers at 512-472-TIPS.
This article appears in July 20 • 2012.