Austin 6th street shooting
Blood stains remain on 6th Street after an early morning shooting on Saturday, June 12, 2021 in downtown Austin, Texas. (Aaron Martinez/Austin American-Statesman via AP)

Early Saturday morning, two juveniles opened fire on each other in the middle of Austin’s crowded east Sixth Street entertainment district. New reports indicate there was a “dispute” between the two, though what that means — whether it was possibly gang-related — isn’t clear. Austin’s acting police chief described it as “an isolated incident between two parties.”

That portion of East Sixth Street, also known as Dirty Sixth, was crowded Friday night and early Saturday morning. As a result, when the shooting started, 14 people were hit when the two opened fire on each other. Two of the wounded were seriously injured and one, 25-year-old Douglas Kantor, has since died.

While both of the shooters initially escaped, they have since been arrested. One suspect was arrested Sunday and is reported to be 15 years old. He hasn’t been identified because of his age. The second suspect who was arrested yesterday is 17 and because he’s been charged as an adult, KHOU has identified him as Jeremiah Tabb.

As you’d expect, the shooting by two people carrying firearms illegally resulted in all of the usual bloody shirt-waivers waving their bloody shirts, including calls for Texas Governor Greg Abbott to veto the constitutional carry bill that’s still sitting, unsigned, on his desk.

Here’s Austin’s feckless mayor’s kneejerk reaction . . .

One person of note wanted to make it clear that he doesn’t blame firearms or a lack of restrictions on gun rights for the shooting or the death of Douglas Kantor. Douglas’s brother Nick posted this message on his Facebook page . . .

That lack of resources Nick Kantor mentions is something that large cities across the country have been dealing with. These are self-inflicted wounds resulting from the post-George Floyd stampede to defund police departments and “reimagine law enforcement.”

The Austin city council zero’d out funding for three police academy classes last year and cut funding for 150 current officer positions, a cut of about $20 million in the department’s budget. All of that reimagining has also led almost 300 Austin cops to reimagine their careers and quit or retire from the force.

It’s gotten so bad here in Austin that the state legislature acted and Governor Abbott has signed into law a bill to penalize larger cities that defund their law enforcement functions. The state will withhold property taxes and used the funds to pay for Texas Department of Public Safety officers to fill in and maintain law and order.

But the new law hasn’t taken effect yet. The city’s cuts to the department budget along with cops who’ve quit and retired — not to mention the city’s recently overturned homeless camping law and a prosecutor who isn’t interested in prosecuting criminals —  have resulted in inadequate numbers of officers on the streets and a corresponding spike in violent crime. Not to mention significantly longer 911 response times.

So Mayor Adler will have to forgive those of us here in the city who aren’t buying the party line about the need for more gun control. Texas already has laws against minors carrying concealed firearms, aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, and murder. It isn’t clear what additional laws anti-gun activists and politicians think would have prevented the shooting over the weekend and the media never seem to be interested in asking that question.

Since one of the perps is a juvenile, we may not learn much about him or his record. But it will be interesting to find out how many prior encounters Jeremiah Tabb has had with the criminal justice system.

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62 COMMENTS

  1. Dollars to donuts that Tabb has a lengthy record. I have all the sympathy in the world for the Kantor family. As long as Austin insists on “keeping Austin Weird”, the actual city motto, nothing will change.

    • Anyone need to search “Jeremiah Tabb” (Jeremiah Roshaun Leland James Tabb) to imagine a
      general description of this SOB (no you do not need the search).

      WTH are a 15yr old and 17yr old out past midnight in the party district of the leftist capital of Tx.

      • “WTH are a 15yr old and 17yr old out past midnight in the party district of the leftist capital of Tx.”

        This. Is. A. PARENTAL FAILURE. Nothing else.

      • “WTH are a 15yr old and 17yr old out past midnight in the party district of the leftist capital of Tx”

        being all they can be. being all they are subsidized to be. doing what they were subsidized to be.

        • Actually, yes it does matter because liberals always insinuate that the “gun violence” problem is a result of the actions of the evil NRA and “gun lobby”; and editorials almost universally show caricatures of fat, slob, white rednecks as the villains.

          There is a relatively small number of repeat criminals who commit most of the crimes with firearms and they are overwhelmingly centered in inner cities and are overwhelmingly black or brown young men. But, liberals can’t put the blame where it belongs. Their solution isn’t to concentrate on where the problem lies because that would be “racist”. No, it’s so much easier to blame the “white supremacist” gun nuts and take their guns away.

          The Austin Statesman refused to publish a description of the suspects because the paper said it didn’t want to “perpetuate stereotypes”. It’s not a stereotype when it’s true.

          I’m damned tired – you might say I’m fighting mad – at having MY rights curtailed or taken away because of the actions career criminal inner city thugs who liberals won’t control or blame because of their woke mentality. So yes, it does matter that these thugs are black.

  2. Under age in an ‘entertainment’ district late at night. Check. Illegally carrying a firearm. Check. Murder, already so illegal. Check. Attempted murder also illegal. Check.

    But the fascist left wants to punish folks that have never violated the law because of this incident. Check.

    To the fascist left you’re guilty and cannot prove yourself innocent. Check.

    • “Under age in an ‘entertainment’ district late at night.”

      Enforcing underage curfew violations are now frowned upon. In fact they have been frowned upon by Libertarians liberals on the left for decades now. And the ACLU has actually sued to have them thrown out in court. Or Force local governments to repeal them. The reality is that unsurpervised children get into trouble. Especially children from single parent homes.

    • “But the fascist left wants to punish folks that have never violated the law because of this incident.”

      not exactly. they want to control folks. any excuse will do. if there are not enough excuses, they’ll subsidize problems to generate more excuses.

      “To the fascist left you’re guilty and cannot prove yourself innocent”

      not exactly. to the ones behind the fascist left, you’re guilty until 1) you’re under their total control and work for them, or 2) you’re dead.

  3. I swear these gun grabbing liberal activists get a little chubby every time the young idiots start shootin!!

  4. This sure gets a lot of press…meanwhile in Chiraq another mass shooting resulted in 8 shot with 4 dead. Ho hum. Gun control instead of people/gang control. Nothing upscale about 75th & Ghetto…

    • I agree. It is getting a great deal of press. Because it happened in the “nice white area” of the city. Many seem surprised that “this could happen here”???

    • “Gun control instead of people/gang control”

      gun control is people control. “gang” control could be totally accomplished in a few weeks, and will be, but as long as the “gangs” are useful in disrupting and degrading american society they’ll be subsidized and defended and protected.

  5. Both were juveniles. The question is where were the parents? As far as I am concerned, we should go back to 21 as an adult. If you have a reason to be adult at 18(like military service, or wanting to marry and start life), you petition for it. No kid still at home or on their parents’ dime at college has shown the responsibility to be an adult. They should not be able to vote. It should have to be earned. That comes with “the parents are responsible”, of course.
    When juveniles mess up bad, they should be put into “boot camp” type training. Make them into adults. Much better than tagging them as a felon for the rest of their life. Truth be known, many boys in trouble since WWII went into the service, absolutely hated it, couldn’t wait to get out, but came out men, not boys.
    I wasn’t one of them, but I managed to stay out of trouble

  6. Senseless tragedy and a moment of silence for Doug Kantor and family.

    mr. 17 year old faces a laundry list of charges and probably will wind up in big boy court and be sent to a TX prison where he will make a good wife for a lifer street named, “Big Pipe.” The 15 year old will be held as long as possible and get a slap on the wrist and in time will most likely join his rival in prison.

    Do the crime, do the time.

  7. Actually it was both. Criminals should be hunted down and have their guns taken or they should be killed if they refuse to give them up. That’s impossible if you defund the police. Police aren’t going to risk themselves if they aren’t trained and militarized appropriately to avoid death or injury by guns wielded by scumbags who think they are above the law. I tell you what, I’d want a tank and some crazy armor if I was a cop. In fact, that’s why I wouldn’t become one because I would want insane armor and weapons to cheat against these crooks.

    • Of course the current regime considers White male gun owners to be criminals. Cops should not be armed, PERIOD. Citizens should be armed, not government employees.

      • “Cops should not be armed, PERIOD”
        I agree. I’ve been saying disarm the police on TTAG for years now. The only reason to call the police is to pick up the dead bodies of the criminals that the law abiding kills.

      • “Of course the current regime considers White male gun owners to be criminals”

        yes, that is exactly the case. to the ones behind this current regime the white citizens who they don’t own and control are in fact and in deed their tribal enemies, to be subjugated and put to work for them or to be eliminated.

    • What about when the GUBBERMENT makes you a criminal? Would you fight your way out of it or roll over and hope the courts are on your side?

      Fuck the police. Especially fuck their push to militarization. That’s some serious boot licker mentality.

      You don’t even know what the fuck a realist is.

  9. How could the POSSIBLY occur in the oh so enlighted progtard socialist nirva of Austin. Couldn’t be. Must be racist – dem honkies stealin da brothers caps. An chit.

  10. I live in Texas and I just can’t believe how poorly this state is run. Now we are supposed to cut back on our air conditioning to save the grid. We lost power for two weeks during the coldest weather of the winter because of “solar energy”, now the are supposed to broil because our leaders won’t share power with our neighbor states. How many people will die this time? The rest of the state looks like a junk yard sprinkled with garbage. Austin is one of the best parts and now there’s murder on the streets there. Houston is a sewer. Glad all these idiots from California are coming here to ruin what’s left. Thanks governor, you’re and idiot.

    • {The Great state of Texas}

      “The rest of the state looks like a junk yard sprinkled with garbage. Austin is one of the best parts and now there’s murder on the streets there.”

      Are you seriously the delusional? Murder is only coming now to Austin?

      Your solution is obvious – Pack your crap and go somewhere else, like one of those ‘enlightened’ states run by Democrat Scum and see what despair really looks like…

    • Lifelong resident and I agree. You are either poor and just barely making a living or live on a huge ranch with a mile long driveway so you don’t have to see how crappy your neighbors have it.

  11. What exactly would more overpaid, pampered, snowflake government thugs have done to stop this? Not one thing. Citizens should be armed, not government employees.

  12. CRIMMALS DON’T CARE ABOUT GUN LAWS , SO PLEASE FEEL FREE TO GO AFTER THEM IF CAN CATCH THEM . GLAD THE TWO GOT CAUGHT . .
    POLICE SHOULDN’T HAVE THEIR HANDS TIED BY THE LAW TO SERVE AND PROTECT

    AS FOR THE ELECTRIC GRID , NEED LEADERSHIP TO BUILD A NEW GRID .
    SOLAR ENERGY HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH LOST OF ELECRTIC POWER , WAS NATURAL GAS SUPPLY TO POWER PLANTS THAT FROZE .

    over population strain on our resources world wide .
    planet be better off if humans all dropped dead .

    • Police shouldn’t have their hands tied by the law?

      You are right, it should be the noose around their neck.

    • Natural gas cant freeze unless it’s got water in it. The separators aren’t working, or they’ve somehow gotten water in the system.

        • In case you haven’t noticed the obvious, the Possum isn’t a human, he’s marsupial… 🙂

  13. This isn’t a “defund” problem. How would they have stopped this? This is a “you have no right to self defense” problem. Defend yourself. Stop expecting tyrants to save your life.

    • Before I even saw the photo of the suspect.. I bet my shift partner he was black.. he wouldn’t take the bet.. of course not.. there was a 97% chance he was black.. imagine that..

  16. i disagree
    this is a “america is mass producing sociopaths and its probably too late to get out of this unscathed” problem

  17. people killing other people randomly for kicks is one of the metrics used to gauge the arrival of the long predicted “end stage of the blue city/blue state governance model”

    • interesting how some people think it’s ok to just start shootin’…no matter where you are…..

  20. Well if the shooters were armed with a Taurus PT738 I can see how they shot everyone up.
    possums Range Review.
    The trigger is decent, the sights are not, the grips are to thin and you cant hit sht.

  21. “It isn’t clear what additional laws anti-gun activists and politicians think would have prevented the shooting over the weekend and the media never seem to be interested in asking that question”

    that’s because they’re not interested in that question. what they’re interested in is “how do we get everyone else’s guns so that only we have them so that we can do what we want?”

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