Stray bullet hit vet in weekend shooting

Max Kilgore was on the phone with an Uber driver in downtown Austin on Sunday morning when he heard two loud pops ring out.

The 26-year-old Navy veteran said he immediately knew it was gunfire from a 9 mm weapon, but he didn’t see where it was coming from.

Then he heard another shot.

“Right when I heard that third pop I felt a burning sensation on my side,” Kilgore told the American-Statesman. “I knew I’d been hit.”

Kilgore was wounded in the fifth shooting in the city over the weekend, three of which happened within a few blocks of where he was standing. Austin Police Chief Brian Manley has promised to improve safety at the city's entertainment district after the spike in gun violence. 

After being struck, Kilgore sprinted away as a flood of police officers rushed into the area and gunfire continued. He’d been standing in front of a municipal building near Seventh Street and ended up in front of the police headquarters.

In the hasty dash away from the shooting, Kilgore flagged down an officer who told him he’d been shot. The bullet didn’t go through his body; Kilgore said it “skipped off” his right rib cage, leaving a hole in his jacket.

Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services medics treated him and took him to a hospital for X-rays to make sure he’d be all right.

“I have no idea what happened,” he said. “All I know is it wasn’t my time to go and I’m absolutely the luckiest dude in the world to be hit in the upper body and only have a bruise and a welt.”

Kilgore works in the oil industry and currently lives in Midland. He was on a job north of Houston when he decided to meet up with a friend from the Navy in Austin and check out the city’s nightlife and live music.

Despite being shot, Kilgore called the experience a “freak thing” that could have happened to anybody and won't stop him from coming back to Austin.

Austin police said the shooting in which Kilgore was hit began after a minor crash between a Chevrolet Monte Carlo and a Maserati Levante. After the vehicles bumped into each other, occupants of the Maserati got out of the vehicle and approached the Monte Carlo.

Police said surveillance footage shows a man punching someone in the vehicle before muzzle flashes appear from inside the car. One of the men from the Maserati doubled over, then ran back to the vehicle , pulling a gun and firing at police as they approached, police said.

Hours after the shooting, Manley described how a third car tried to move out of the intersection and was struck by gunfire from the Maserati. An occupant in that vehicle was wounded and had serious but not life-threatening injuries, Manley said.

Officers on Sunday afternoon found the Maserati in the Mueller neighborhood in East Austin with a dead man inside.

Police are still searching for suspects in all five shootings over the weekend. Anyone with information on any of the incidents is asked to call the Austin police homicide tip line at 512-472-8477.