Three people are dead and 14 others injured following a mass shooting outside Buford’s Backyard Beer Garden on West Sixth Street in downtown Austin in the early hours of Sunday morning. Among the dead is the suspected gunman, who was shot by officers.
Here’s what to know about the bar where the shooting took place:
Buford’s Backyard Beer Garden is an Austin bar that opened on West Sixth Street in 2017. The space formerly housed Steampunk Saloon, which opened in 2015, and the popular restaurant, Opal’s Divine’s, for 13 years before that. The bar is designed with an open-air format. It has a large wraparound patio upstairs as well as a downstairs patio that faces the street. According to the city tourism website Visit Austin, the bar’s capacity is 700.
The bar is located at 700 W. Sixth St. in downtown Austin.
Buford’s caters to a 21-and-up crowd. The bar is popular among students and alumni of the University of Texas at Austin.
“We return all the calls (to the media), but (sharing information) is not something appropriate to do while the investigation takes place,” Buford’s owner Bob Woody told the Statesman Sunday. “We have to let them do what they’re doing first.”
As for when Buford’s is expected to reopen, Woody said that will be dictated by the investigation.
“The police will make that decision, and we do not pressure them or ask for information about it,” he said.