June 14 (UPI) — Authorities in Texas announced Sunday that one of 14 people injured during a shooting over the weekend in Austin has died.
The Austin Police Department identified the deceased in a statement as Douglas John Kantor, 25, stating he died Sunday afternoon from injuries sustained during a shooting the day prior.
“This is a tragic outcome,” said Austin Mayor Steve Adler via Twitter. “Please keep this person, the other victims and their families in your thoughts.”
One suspect has been arrested in connection to the mass shooting that erupted in Austin’s popular Sixth Street entertainment district at around 1:24 a.m. Saturday. Police said before announcing Kantor’s death on Sunday that 14 people were injured, including two critically.
Interim Police Chief Joseph Chacon told reporters during a press conference Saturday that the shooting “was one of the more significant incidents that we’ve ever had happen in our city.”
The shooting occurred, he said, during a busy Friday night with crowds the size they were pre-pandemic, resulting in nearly all those who were shot being “innocent bystanders.”
Chacon said there are two male subjects, one of whom has since been taken into police custody.
“This does appear to be an isolated incident between two parties,” he said, adding he believes that the shooting was a result of “some type of disturbance” between them.
It was unclear how many shots were fired, he said.
The mayor said the uptick in violence in the city coincides with “a disturbing rise in gun violence across the country as we exit the pandemic.”
Along with the shooting in Austin, there were at least three other mass shootings over Saturday night, including in Savannah, Ga., resulting in nine injured and one dead; in Cleveland, Ohio, resulting in four injured and three dead; and in Chicago, Ill., killing one and injuring nine others.
“There were four mass shootings in six hours in the U.S. this weekend,” Adler said. “We must do more to prevent gun violence in this country. This should never happen.”
According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been 272 mass shootings in the United States so far this year.
