A night out on Austin’s infamous Sixth Street turned tragic when a suspected mass overdose at the Buckshot Bar left one man dead and three others hospitalized.
The Austin Police Department said officers responded around 3 a.m. on September 2 to East Sixth Street after receiving reports that multiple people were overdosing inside the venue. First responders administered Narcan, a medication used to reverse opioid overdoses, to five people total. Four were transported to area hospitals, while one person refused medical care, per Fox 7.
Police later confirmed that 32-year-old Christopher Lee Davis was among those treated and was pronounced dead in the early morning hours after the first calls started coming in to APD.
The incident comes just three days after “International Overdose Awareness Day.”
According to Austin Public Health data, paramedics were called to more than 1,100 overdose cases in 2024, with nearly 500 already reported this year. Last year alone, close to 400 overdose deaths were recorded around the city.
The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) has joined the investigation and is reviewing surveillance video from inside the bar to try to determine whether illegal activity occurred on the premises. According to CBS Austin, investigators have not yet confirmed what drug actually caused the overdoses.
For residents familiar with the area, the incident served as another reminder of the dangers that lurk behind Sixth Street’s party scene.
“It’s just, it’s nightlife down here in Austin, you know, it’s so it doesn’t really surprise me,” Austin resident Stephen Tucker told Fox 7.
“It kind of surprises me that there would be five overdoses in one place at one time. That is that’s very surprising, because when we had that spice epidemic or whatever a couple of years ago, and we had all those fentanyl overdoses with the crack cocaine. That was real, that hit home, because, like I said, I’m a recovered addict. And one of those people could have been me, if I’d have still been doing drugs,” Tucker added.
The investigation into the Buckshot Bar overdoses remains ongoing as of press time.