The mass shooting happened outside Buford’s, a popular bar in the West 6th Street stretch of Austin – known as the heart of the city’s music and nightlife area, and for its food trucks, according to local media reports.
Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis told reporters the shooter drove an SUV multiple times around the block where the bar is located.
At one point, the shooter turned on his hazard lights, rolled down the window and used a pistol to shoot patrons on Buford’s patio and in front of the bar, Davis said.
The shooter then drove west, parked the vehicle, got out and started firing at people who were walking by, she said.
Police officers fatally shot the man at a nearby intersection, Davis said.
Law enforcement and emergency services were already in the area because of crowds that tend to gather there on weekends, Davis said. The speed of response saved multiple lives, she said.
The incident marked the 56th US mass shooting this year and the one with the most victims so far, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as an incident in which at least four people, not including the shooter, are injured or killed by gunfire.
The US had 407 mass shootings last year, according to archive data.