'It's just so common': 6th Street business owners recall years of violence, shootings

Hugo Mendez was enjoying a night-out with his wife on Saturday when he heard a flurry of gun shots ring through 6th Street.

Mendez, who at the time was nearing the back entrance of his tattoo shop in the 200 block of East 6th Street, said some of his employees were standing out front, just a few doors down from where the Austin Police officers shot and killed an armed man.

Though hearing gunshots is a common occurrence on 6th street, Mendez said, the 10 to 13 shots he recalls hearing were alarming.

His employees ran inside, locked the doors of Blindside tattoos and turned off the lights, Mendez said. Not knowing the extent of the situation as it unfolded late Saturday evening, they hunkered down and stayed the night inside the shop — saying the street was still harbored off in the morning.

"It's just so common," Mendez said. "Because you become so used to it, you become immune or numb to what you need to do to get out of the situation."

There have been several instances of violence and shootings on the historic street in the heart of downtown Austin, including the 2021 mass shooting that left a 25-year-old tourist dead and 13 others wounded.

In addition to the man killed by police, the shooting Saturday night left three others injured.

The city of Austin has taken steps to address violence on 6th street — like improving light fixtures and holding active shooter trainings — but business owners continue to grapple with the effects frequent violence has on their employees, customers and business as a whole.

The Safer 6th Street initiative

Jesse Fortney remembers the excitement he felt when he first opened the Gnar Bar on East 6th Street in November 2020.

He knew 6th Street had problems, he said, but was optimistic that things would turn around.

"Opening that bar has been literally like a nightmare every day," Fortney said. "I'm literally holding out because I hope it gets better, but I have zero trust in the city of Austin."

Following a string of shootings, and the 6th street mass shooting in 2021, the Austin City Council approved the Safer 6th Street initiative — a plan aimed at improving safety in the area.

Several measures from the initiative have been implemented, some including conducting active shooter and 'stop the bleed' trainings, improving some lighting fixtures and conducting a naloxone (Narcan) and overdose awareness session, according to the city's Development Services Department, which leads the Nightlife and Entertainment Services Division overseeing the bulk of the initiative.

Tara Long, a spokesperson for the Development Service Department, said the department would like to launch a program incentivizing bar owners to make safety improvements, but that all depends on funding.

"The Implementation Team will launch an accreditation program in the future that will recognize bar operators who adopt best practices and participate in trainings," Long said in a statement. "These best practices may include incentives for security improvements like cameras and metal detection equipment, but the scope of that accreditation will depend on future funding."

Mendez said that metal detectors and pat downs would only work if every business on 6th Street did it.

"What if I start patting people down for the safety of my staff? Well, guess what, nobody's going to come in," Mendez said.

But if everyone is required to pat down patrons or everyone has metal detectors, it would even the playing field, Mendez said.

If the city funded metal detectors for all establishments, "it'd be amazing," Mendez said.

Business owners weigh in on potential solutions

Gnar Bar is located in the 200 block of East 6th Street, right next to where the Saturday night shooting occurred.

Fortney said he was not at the bar Saturday night, but remembers getting several calls and messages from his general manager and other business owners.

The general manager of the bar, Fortney said, told him she didn't know exactly what was going on, but due to the amount of gunfire thought someone had an automatic weapon.

"They closed the doors and barricaded everybody in," Fortney said.

A bullet pierced the front door's glass window and went into the wall inside the bar.

"It was extremely scary," Fortney said.

Fortney applauded the Austin Police Department for their response to the situation, saying "I think they handled it perfectly."

The police department in a statement following the shooting said they were notified about the incident at 11:52 p.m., and the first officer arrived on scene within a minute. The statement said the incident was "not preventable" and that the department is working to enhance safety measures.

Fortney said there needs to be a crackdown on underage drinking, more entrances and exits on the street where people are scanned for weapons and guidelines and repercussions for bar owners.

"If they're going to keep the street open on weekends, for anyone to walk down there, then they need to board up the entire street and they need to search everyone going on the street," Fortney said.

Fortney said that incentivizing bars to install metal detectors could help stop violence inside the bars, but not on the street.

"They are 10 times more dangerous on the street with mass crowds of people versus inside a small bar," Fortney said.

Part of the charge from the City Council's safer 6th Street initiative resolution passed in 2021 was to explore the possibility of opening 6th street on weekend nights to reduce crowd sizes.

Fortney feels that opening the street to vehicular traffic, which has been closed during weekend evenings since the 1990s, would help reduce crowd sizes.

Former Austin Police Chief Joe Chacon and Denise Lucas, the then Development Services Department director, in a 2021 memo said it would not be feasible to open the street due to the concentration of foot-traffic at night, narrowness of the sidewalks and more.

"There has been no attempt to open Sixth Street to vehicular traffic during peak hours in the entertainment district," Long said in the statement, citing the memo.

Mendez, who is getting ready to open a bar below his tattoo shop, said he feels one of the problems is the current reputation of 6th Street, saying its prestige isn't what it used to be.

"Now, it is called the dirty 6th Street," Mendez said.

Sixth Street was developed as a leading trade and commercial district in the late 1800s, with prominent remaining properties including the Driskill hotel, which was built in 1886. Now listed as a historic district, the downtown area around Fourth and Sixth streets has been a major entertainment district since the 1970s.

"You have to clean up the street to change the reputation," Mendez said.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: 6th Street business owners recall year of violence after APD shooting