Two nearby but unrelated shooting incidents took place minutes apart, police say, amid the crowded entertainment district of Austin, Texas, in the early hours of Saturday morning.
The first incident left one victim dead and four others injured. A separate incident ended with the gunman injured when bystanders helped detain the man after he fired his weapon during a fight.
In a news conference, Austin police said they are "actively looking" for a shooter they believe to be a man, adding they are interviewing multiple suspects in connection with an initial shooting that occurred at 2:17 a.m. local time.
Authorities say they received a call regarding "multiple shots" being fired in the 200 block of East Sixth Street downtown. The second attack, classified as an assault, took place several blocks away, seven minutes later. However, the two incidents now appear to be unrelated, said Austin Police Chief of Staff Brian Manley.
Police officials confirmed earlier reports that a female thought to be in her 20s had been pronounced dead at the scene.
Three female victims, all of whom appear to be in their 30s, have been taken to the hospital for care of non-life-threatening injuries, while the fifth victim refused treatment on site, according to Austin-Travis County EMS Cmdr. Mike Benavides.
After further investigation, says Chief Manley, neither of the isolated shootings was the work of an "active shooter," as previously thought.
The shooter from the second attack had fired multiple shots in a parking garage in the 800 block of Trinity, said Manley. A suspect was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries after onlookers, in a bold move, worked to wrestle the firearm from the shooter, and were able to disarm him.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
FINAL Downtown-5 pts. 1 Ad Fem DOS, 2 Fem/1 male txpt'd to UMCB w/gsw inj. 1 male refusal post assault. Media brief 7th/Brazos time tbd.
— ATCEMS (@ATCEMS) July 31, 2016
