On Buford's first night open since three people were killed and over a dozen others were injured in a shooting, owner Bob Woody sat outside the bar to thank people for coming in.
"There is no rulebook on how to do this," he said Friday. "But you got to do things to help. You've got to stand up."
Woody said his employees spent several days reflecting together and made the decision to reopen as a team. At an all-staff meeting, he asked everyone who wanted to reopen to raise their hands. He said everyone but one staffer agreed.
"I had one that wasn't ready, and that's OK," he said. "She's gonna come back."
Buford's is donating 100% of its sales Friday, Saturday and Sunday to victims and families affected by the shooting. Early into the night Friday, Woody said he had already raised $10,000.
The decision to reopen just a week after the shooting was controversial. On Instagram, people said it was insensitive and too soon.
One commenter wrote: "Someone underage got killed at this establishment, and you think it's appropriate and respectful to open back up a less than a week later ...?"
But inside the bar, people were eager to return to a sense of normalcy.
Sage Casey said he showed up at Buford's — for what might have been his 300th time — to support the victims and staff. Casey grew up in Boston and said he was "very near" the Boston Marathon bombings in 2013.
"As soon as they cleared up what had happened, everybody showed back up to show that you ... don't allow those things to make you afraid of going to your favorite places on earth," he said. "I feel that it's very important for us to be here tonight to show that this is our place, and we're not going to be afraid."
Woody said he coordinated with the city to add an increased police presence on the streets surrounding the bar and to ensure Rio Grande would be closed to through traffic indefinitely from Sixth Street to the alleyway from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. He said he's also working on installing protective glass along the beer garden.
Police say Ndiaga Diagne, 53, parked in front of Buford's early last Sunday, rolled down his window and opened fire with a semiautomatic handgun at patrons standing outside. According to investigators, he then got out of his car and shot a pedestrian with an AR-15-style rifle, before being shot and killed by police.
The shooting claimed the lives of UT student Savitha Shan, former Texas Tech University student Ryder Harrington and Jorge Pederson, who had moved to Austin just two weeks earlier. More than a dozen others were injured and two people are still in the hospital, Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said Thursday. One victim, 21-year-old UT student Rudy Garza, is in critical condition.
Davis said APD had "no contacts" with Diagne, but Bexar County court documents reveal a judge found he had a "history or pattern of committing family violence" in his second marriage. The findings failed to trigger criminal penalties or gun restrictions; Diagne legally owned both weapons used in the shooting. This week, a Buda woman filed a lawsuit accusing Diagne of assaulting her at the Tesla Gigafactory.
Dan Weinstock, who considers himself a Sixth Street regular, said he showed up Friday to support the staff. He said if the bar closed or people stopped going, it would "compound the tragedy" of the shooting.
"I think it's really important to come back and support them after such a traumatic event, and not to bring it up … not to ask them what that night was like for them, but just to be like a comforting, familiar face," he said. "You saw me before this happened, and you're seeing me again now. I'm not scared to come back here."
Copyright 2026 KUT News