A 27-year-old man was shot in the upper left leg early Sunday morning near a gas station in the 700 block of East 7th Street in downtown Austin, and two 21-year-old men now face charges in connection with the shooting. Police said the man was in critical but stable condition after the attack, which followed a fight involving a larger group near East Sixth Street.
Officers responded to reports of shots fired at the gas station at about 2:12 a.m., according to CBS Austin. When they arrived, they found the 27-year-old victim suffering from a gunshot wound to his upper left leg, per the Austin Police Department. Officers and bystanders gave him first aid at the scene before Austin-Travis County EMS transported him to a hospital.
Fight Near East Sixth Street Preceded the Gunfire
Police said a preliminary investigation determined that the victim and a group of people had been fighting near East Sixth Street before the shooting took place. According to police, the man was shot as that group was leaving the area in a vehicle. Investigators went on to identify the people believed to have been involved in the altercation.
Officers located two of those individuals still inside a vehicle and recovered a gun from inside it, police said. The station's report identifies the two men taken into custody as Israel Ortega Jr. and Jaivan Lee Antonio Ortega, both 21. Police said both men were charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
East Sixth Street's History of Violent Incidents
East Sixth Street, the heart of downtown Austin's nightlife strip, has seen other violent incidents investigated by police in recent months. In a separate case, the Austin Police Department's Aggravated Assault Unit asked for the public's help in April identifying three suspects connected to an aggravated assault reported near East Sixth Street on Feb. 28. Months earlier, in December 2025, APD sought information about a separate aggravated assault with a deadly weapon reported in the 200 block of East Sixth Street.
Citywide data has shown aggravated assaults making up a large share of violent crime tracked in Austin. A report published in May found that aggravated assaults accounted for about 65% of the 968 violent offenses tracked in a survey of the city, according to the Austin American-Statesman. The dossier evidence does not establish whether downtown shootings specifically are rising or falling.
Downtown gas stations have been the scene of other violent incidents in recent years. In January 2025, a suspect was arrested for murder after allegedly fatally shooting a 23-year-old at a gas station near downtown Austin, a case that was counted as the city's third homicide of that year, per the earlier CBS Austin report. A separate KXAN Austin tally of 2025 homicides also referenced a man arrested after a deadly shooting at a downtown gas station, while a July report from FOX 7 Austin described two separate shootings in downtown Austin that happened about 30 minutes apart early one Sunday morning.
Austin police have not released additional details about what sparked the fight that preceded Sunday's shooting, and the investigation remains ongoing.
