Five people are suspected to have overdosed on narcotics at Buckshot, a bar on Sixth Street, early Tuesday morning. One of them, identified by the Austin Police Department as 33-year-old Christopher Lee Davis, is confirmed dead.
APD said police officers administered Narcan, an overdose reversal drug, to all five people before Austin-AGÕæÈË°Ù¼ÒÀÖ County EMS arrived. Four people were taken to a hospital, where Davis was pronounced dead. Police said one person declined to be taken to the hospital.
APD did not confirm if the victims were employees of the bar, or if they suspect fentanyl was involved. A forthcoming toxicology report is expected to indicate what caused the overdoses, APD said.
The Texas Alcoholic and Beverage Commission began an investigation into Buckshot on Tuesday to determine if the bar should be held accountable for the overdoses. Buckshot has been investigated by TABC before, most recently in 2022 for a fight on the premises, a spokesperson for the TABC said.
Fatal drug overdoses have been on a steady decline in AGÕæÈË°Ù¼ÒÀÖ County. The latest medical examiner report, released in April, found drug deaths decreased by 22% from 2022 to 2023. In that same time period, fentanyl-related deaths decreased by 36%.
AGÕæÈË°Ù¼ÒÀÖ County leaders have attributed the decline in drug deaths to an increased prevalence of Narcan in the community. The county has distributed thousands of doses of the drug to public vending machines, ambulances and several bars. Buckshot does not appear to be one of the bars that received Narcan through that effort based on previous reporting by KUT News.
KUT News reached out to the bar for a comment but did not hear back before publication time.
Phil Owen, program director of Communities for Recovery, one of the organizations the county partnered with to distribute Narcan, said overdose incidents have declined in bars since 2022, when the county began supplying more of them with Narcan, a brand name for naloxone. But he said more needs to be done.
“Expanding naloxone education and access is essential to ensuring that it becomes as commonplace in first aid kits as bandages or gauze, not only in bars but across all types of businesses,� Owen said.
