The mass shooting Sunday morning was just the most recent in a series of violent gun incidents that have left multiple people dead or injured in the area since 2016.
AUSTIN, Texas — While Downtown Austin’s Sixth Street entertainment district has long been viewed as a lively and generally safe destination, the area has not been immune to episodes of mass violence.
Over the past decade, six separate shooting incidents along the city’s iconic Sixth Street corridor have left multiple people dead or injured — with five of them occurring within the last five years.
In 2016, one person was killed and four others were injured in a shooting just after bars closed in the 200 block of East Sixth Street. Investigators said the violence appeared to stem from a disturbance between several people, with gunfire erupting into the surrounding crowd.
In June 2021, a tourist visiting from New York was killed and 14 others were wounded when shots were fired into a large crowd in the 400 block of East Sixth Street during the early morning hours of June 12.
Violence continued in 2022 when four people were shot and hospitalized around 2 a.m. during the final weekend of the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival. The shooting unfolded as large crowds filled downtown streets.
In 2023, three people were wounded — one critically — during a police-involved shooting on the crowded entertainment strip. Officers responding to the scene discharged their weapons, striking the suspected gunman, who later died.
In March 2025, four people were injured in a shooting near the corner of Sixth and Brazos streets, close to the Lit Lounge, around 1 a.m. All four victims suffered gunshot wounds but survived.
And now, following this Sunday’s tragic shooting, investigators are once again working to piece together the background of the suspected gunman, as friends and families pray for those injured in the latest act of violence.