AUSTIN, Texas _ One woman who relatives say was visiting from the San Francisco Bay Area is dead and four others were injured after gunfire erupted in downtown Austin early Sunday just as bars were letting out.
Just after 2 a.m., a gunman who remained at large Sunday evening opened fire into a crowd outside a row of downtown bars at Sixth and Brazos streets, Austin police said. It is unclear how the incident started, but cellphone videos shared on social media Sunday showed throngs of people running through the street, screaming amid the sounds of shots being fired.
"It was a very chaotic scene," Austin Police Chief of Staff Brian Manley said at a news conference early Sunday. "A lot of people running in different directions with all the gunshots that were coming out."
Police had not released the names of the victims Sunday evening, but relatives identified the woman who was killed as 30-year-old Teqnika Moultrie, a bus driver from San Carlos, Calif.
Ricky Moultrie of Las Vegas, Teqnika Moultrie's brother, told the American-Statesman his sister had traveled to Austin to visit her fiance's family. According to the siblings' grandparents, Teqnika Moultrie had spent Saturday rafting and went out that night to see the city. She was with her fiance downtown when she was shot, Ricky Moultrie said.
"She loved life," Ricky Moultrie said by phone Sunday. "She was the glue to our family."
Four other people were shot and injured during the incident. Three women were taken to a hospital with injuries that were not expected to be life-threatening, police said. Another victim was treated at the scene.
"On behalf of the Austin Police Department, we wish to extend our deepest condolences to the family and friends of the young woman who lost her life to this senseless act of violence and wishes for a speedy recovery to the individuals wounded," Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said in a statement Sunday.
Austin police were searching Sunday for 24-year-old Endicott McCray as a person of interest in the shooting.
McCray is a resident of San Marcos, according to Hays County court records. He has previous burglary convictions, public records show.
McCray is scheduled to appear in Hays County court in September because of a marijuana possession charge. His attorney in the case said the last time he spoke to McCray was more than a week ago.
McCray might be armed, police said Sunday.
In the aftermath of the shooting, witnesses described a confusing and horrific scene downtown.
Sam Vedamanikam, 26, was leaving the dance club Barbarella when he heard about four or five gunshots.
"There were just tons of people on Sixth Street, and I see all of them jump toward the ground," he said. "A lot of people were screaming."
Emergency alerts in the wee hours of the morning warned of an "active shooter" and urged people to avoid the downtown area. It was later confirmed that two separate incidents had occurred within minutes and blocks of each other _ the deadly shooting at 2:17 a.m. on Sixth Street and, seven minutes later, another one at a parking garage on Trinity Street.
No one was shot during the second incident. Police said a man tried to shoot another individual in the garage. He was tackled by witnesses and taken to the hospital with unknown injuries.
The two shootings Sunday were unrelated, police said.
