AUSTIN (Talk1370.com) -- Officials say a disturbance between two groups led to a shooting early Sunday morning in downtown Austin's Sixth Street entertainment district, which resulted in four people being shot.
According to Austin Police, the shooting happened around 2 a.m. Sunday morning in the 400 block of East Sixth Street, near Neches Street. Officers were on patrol in the area when they heard the sound of gunshots.
According to Austin-Travis County EMS, four patients were transported to nearby hospitals with "not expected to be life threatening" injuries.
APD tweeted just before 5 a.m. that they have a suspect in the shooting in custody. Police said Sunday afternoon they are not yet identifying that individual due to the ongoing investigation.
Police say they do not believe this was a random act, and there is no ongoing threat to the public.
According to a Facebook post from the Austin Police Association, officers made over 30 arrests and seized more than 19 firearms Saturday night in the downtown area. Many of those firearms were stolen, according to APA.
Some of the charges against those arrested were for assaultive offenses, disorderly conduct, unlawfully carrying a weapon, felon in possession of a firearm, and aggravated assault.
Sunday marks the final day of the annual South by Southwest festival and the city's spring festival season, which draws thousands of visitors to Austin every year. It's the first time SXSW has been held in two years due to the coronavirus pandemic, after being canceled in 2020 and forced to go virtual for 2021 due to the delta variant.
The final weekend of SXSW in 2019, the last time the festival was held in-person, was marked by a series of shootings in and around the downtown area that sent at least six people to hospitals.
The 400 block of East Sixth is also the same location where a deadly shooting happened in June 2021, which injured 14 and resulted in the death of 25-year old Douglas Kantor.
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City officials have been working on efforts to make Sixth Street safer following that shooting last year, including a plan to punish bars with repeated violent incidents, improve lighting, and create a staging area for emergency personnel.