Another day, another shooting in the US 
Austin people, are you safe?
I think I'm the only active Austinite on BG

We are sound and safe. I think this shooting incident was initially mis-characterized as a terrorist act. The incident involves a male perpetrator, Endicott McCray, age 24, who was probably targeting a group, sadly resulting in a 30 year old young woman's death. The other 30-something year old female victims suffered no life threatening injuries.
http://kxan.com/2016/07/31/multiple-people-shot-throughout-downtown-austin/Crime of passion? Gang shooting? Unless I hear otherwise, either is more likely than terrorist attack. I think the BBC latched on to the story early, because they were covering the downed balloon incident 30 miles from Austin, and living in interesting times the media began to associate the attack with terrorism.
The thing to understand about the Sixth Street and Warehouse districts in Austin, is that it is basically a pub and live night entertainment area. Alcohol, the primary product sold besides music, is not served after 1 AM, and all bars/pubs close at 2 AM.
Being a very large district in a college town (read my last post on South by South West "SXSW 2016" festival), there is an ocean of drunk college kids in the streets (sometimes people, many girls in my experience, are so drunk they are dragged or carried by friends to the street, where people will hail taxis or take mass transport (sadly not Über nor Lyft anymore due to city government legal challenges and regulation).
This mass exodus out from the bars happens between 1 and 2 AM. The human traffic on the streets (closed to traffic) is so congested, that cops patrol on horseback at that hour, and every Friday/Saturday there are at least 3 ambulances on stand by, because there are always a few cases of alcohol poisoning, petty crime, etc. Cops regularly will arrest people suspected of drunk driving.
More unsavoury elements of society also tend to mingle among the students at that hour, no doubt related to illicit drug related activity. It is possible that the shooting is gang related.
11 years ago, I used to frequent the 6th St. area twice a week (I did a lot of dumb things back then), and I hated staying so late, because the environment at 1-2 AM was so chaotic it just seemed very dangerous. More and more as time went by, you heard about acts of violence, including deaths, at least one or two fatal incidents per year during the last few years. Then we had that drunk person plowing a car into the people during SXSW in 2014, remember that one? That resulted in 2 dead and 23 injured people - the SXSW festival did not stop.
Luckily I stopped going downtown so frequently, and I only go to 6th St. during the SXSW festival in March, and always during daylight.