AUSTIN, Texas — The rapid response by Austin police officers and paramedics during Sunday morning’s mass shooting on West Sixth Street is drawing praise from city leaders, who say it helped save lives.

Witness Zoe Blumenshine said she was inside a bar next door to Buford’s when gunfire erupted around closing time.

“I’ve never actually experienced fearing for my life before,” Blumenshine said. “It felt like everything was happening in slow motion.”

Blumenshine said she had been at Buford’s about an hour before the shooting, then ended up sheltering inside the nearby bar as shots rang out. “It was just a really scary, hectic moment. Basically we just army crawled until we got behind the bar and then escaped out the back door,” she said.

Austin-Travis County EMS said the first medics and Austin police officers arrived at Buford’s within 57 seconds of getting the call. “I think getting someone on scene in less than a minute is absolutely above and beyond the national standards,” said ATCEMS Chief Robert Luckritz.

Michael Bullock, resident of the Austin Police Association, said officers did not delay bringing in medical help. “We’re not waiting to make sure there’s not another gunman around. We’re not waiting for all these what ifs before we bring medical assets in,” Bullock said.P

ATCEMS said medics took three people in critical condition to the hospital within 24 minutes, and the rest of the injured were moved within 47 minutes. Luckritz emphasized how quickly care must begin in shootings.

“That’s life and death. When someone is bleeding out like that, we have to stop the bleeding,” he said.

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Questions are also being raised about staffing and patrols on West Sixth Street. Austin police already has officers consistently patrolling the East Sixth side of the street, but Bullock said the department does not have enough personnel to fully patrol all parts of Sixth Street at the same level.

“The department is still about 700 officers short of where we should be,” Bullock said. “Not having the adequate resources is the difference between life and death for a lot of people.”

City leaders, including Mayor Kirk Watson, said the actions by first responders saved the lives of many people early Sunday morning.