AUSTIN, Texas — On Sunday morning, Austinites woke up to yet even more violent news – a shooting for the second weekend in a row downtown near the ARCH and a stabbing in North Austin at The Domain.
These incidents have a lot of people talking today.
The Domain is not an area people would expect a stabbing to happen, but a man in his 40s was stabbed inside a bar overnight.
On Sunday, the police union president said that while Austin is still fairly safe, he feels it's getting more unsafe by the day.
"We need to go back to cracking down on violent crime, you know, we've become soft on this community as far as when it comes to violent crime," said Austin Police Association President Ken Casaday.
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Casaday said the overnight violence is disturbing.
"It's a matter of the department having the intestinal fortitude to get out there and do things the way we used to," he said. "This city was a very safe city for a long time."
On Saturday night, Austin police officers responded to the shooting at East Seventh Street downtown just before 10 p.m. A man in his 20s was hospitalized with serious injuries.
A few hours later, APD was on the scene of a stabbing on Rock Rose Avenue at The Domain, which sent a man in his 40s to the hospital with potentially life-threatening injuries.
This cell phone video shows the chaotic scene inside the 77 Degrees bar.
"Now, a stabbing here at rock rose? It is like wow, this is crazy," said Carlos Magana, who used to live at The Domain. "Sometimes kinda feels like downtown, like, again, you read the news about everything that happens in downtown, and you don't want that to happen over here, but seems like it is happening, so I hope it doesn't go further than what just happened last night."
While Casaday said The Domain is still a safe place to be, some improvements could be made – like making sure underage people and weapons stay out of the bars.
"Maybe the Texas Alcohol and Beverage Commission or our own department need to look a little bit harder at those bars that are inside The Domain and start cracking down on those," he said.
And, as for Downtown Austin, Casaday it might just be best to avoid certain areas.
"Until the department can get this under control, I would recommend that people don't go to East Sixth Street or a six-block area around the ARCH," he said.
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