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We are continuing to follow developments after Sunday’s shooting at Buford’s that killed three people.
We’ll hear the latest update from the Austin Police Department that just wrapped up in the last hour…we have an update on the number of people shot and victims still in hospital, and there was a vigil last night on the University of Texas campus to honor the victims at least two are confirmed UT students.
And later imagine your local box store parking lot as it’s own thriving ecosystem,and now think about how that might be conveyed as an art installation in cardboard.
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The full transcript of this episode of Austin Signal is available on the KUT & KUTX Studio website. The transcript is also available as subtitles or captions on some podcast apps.
Jerry Quijano [00:00:08] We are continuing to follow developments after Sunday’s shooting at Buford’s that killed three people. We’re gonna hear the latest update from the Austin Police Department. They just held a press conference that wrapped up in the last hour. We have an update on the number of people shot and the victims still in the hospital. There was a vigil last night on the University of Texas campus to honor the victims. At least two are confirmed to be UT students. We’ll have more about those stories coming up on today’s show.
KUT Announcer: Laurie Gallardo [00:00:34] The Austin Signal is a production of KUT News, hosted by Jerry Quijano.
Jerry Quijano [00:00:40] Also coming up today on the show, imagine your local box store parking lot as its own thriving ecosystem. And now think about how that might be conveyed as an art installation and cardboard. Those stories and a whole lot more up next right here on Austin Signal. This is Austin Signal. Thank you for tuning in. It’s the fifth day of March. We’re glad you’re making us part of your Thursday. We are continuing to follow developments after Sunday’s shooting at Buford’s Backyard Beer Garden that killed three people and has left others wounded and in critical condition. The Austin Police Department today held their first press conference since Monday. We’re getting things set up here to bring you the latest updates from local officials. Right now, we’re going to bring in Acacia Coronado from the Austin Current, a reporting partner. With KUT News and Austin Signal covering the city of Austin, Acacia, thank you for joining us.
Acacia Coronado [00:01:41] Thanks for having me.
Jerry Quijano [00:01:42] So you and fellow reporter Andrea Ball have a story out this week about the uptick of anti-Muslim rhetoric coming from state leadership prior to and after Sunday’s shooting at Buford’s and how that kind of information has been compounded by the alleged gunman possibly being Muslim. What kind of rhetoric or actions have we heard from state leaders, let’s say like over the past six months?
Acacia Coronado [00:02:05] Yeah. So this really comes at a time in which rhetoric has been very tense. In November, Governor Greg Abbott designated the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, foreign terrorist organizations, which banned them from purchasing or requiring land in Texas. And then last month, Attorney General Ken Paxton sued to try to shut down care, and then this also comes just a few weeks after. Some democratic lawmakers signed a letter saying that schools with ties to the Muslim religion had been banned from participating in the state’s school voucher program.
Jerry Quijano [00:02:49] Going back to Sunday’s shooting at Buford, law enforcement officials have been hesitant to declare a definitive motive in the shooting, but they did say it could be terrorism related. What evidence have they been pointing to?
Acacia Coronado [00:03:01] So, so far, the evidence that we are aware of that they are pointing to are images of the suspect wearing a shirt that said a property of a law, as well as allegedly wearing a shirt with an Iranian flag design. And so those are, as far as we know, the indicators. And this did come the day after the United States bombed Iran.
Jerry Quijano [00:03:28] And as I said, we’re expecting an update from Austin, the Austin Police Department. That’ll be coming up shortly here on Austin Signal. Let’s talk about the local community and the reaction to it in the wake of Sunday’s shooting. Local leaders are frankly concerned about Austin’s Muslim community. Let’s start with council member Zoh Khadri. The shooting happened in the district that he represents. You talked to him, what did he tell y’all?
Acacia Coronado [00:03:53] He told us that he’s hearing that the community is concerned and he is concerned, he’s concerned for the safety of all of the Austin community, but he’s also concerned for the safety of the Muslim members of the Austin community because he’s hearing concern from them about their houses of worship and their prayer times and whether a bad actor could come in towards them, come in and commit crimes towards them.
Jerry Quijano [00:04:19] Well, speaking of religious houses of worship here in the Austin area, you also spoke with a religious leader from the community. Who did you speak with?
Acacia Coronado [00:04:28] Yeah, so I spoke with an imam from an area mosque who mentioned that the community is just as heartened to hear members of their own neighborhoods, of their schools, of their workplaces kind of continuing to speak with such negative rhetoric about the Muslim community. And at the same time, they have concern about their safety, they have fears. They are continuing their usual safety protocol, which includes having volunteers for safety outside of their place of worship during their prayer hours.
Jerry Quijano [00:05:05] We have been speaking with Acacia Coronado. She is the education reporter for Austin Current. They are KUT’s reporting partner in coverage of Austin. Thank you for joining us, Acacia.
Acacia Coronado [00:05:16] Thank you for having me.
Jerry Quijano [00:05:24] OK, we mentioned that update from the Austin Police Department. We are now joined by KUT’s government accountability reporter Andrew Weber. He was at that press conference. Andrew, thanks for making it to the studio. Yeah. Thanks for having me, Jerry. So tell us, what kind of updates did we hear today from Austin Police?
Andrew Weber [00:05:41] A lot of updates on the suspected shooter, but we did get a sense of the timeframe here. Chief Lisa Davis came out and played two 911 calls from the area just after the shooting began, and she also played a lot video footage, specifically two officer body worn cameras, and a halo camera, which is just sort of one of those cameras that’s mounted and has sort of a bird’s eye view of the area, and then another one from a vehicle that was nearby. Okay, what did we-
Jerry Quijano [00:06:11] We found out that there was a small history between the suspect and APD. What were the details there?
Andrew Weber [00:06:17] Yeah, they said that he largely wasn’t on their radar, but as Sam Stark reported for the Austin Current, there have been allegations of domestic violence in San Antonio. And they did mention a wellness check. That was through, the chief said, through New York where he used to live. He used to in the Bronx.
Jerry Quijano [00:06:36] Okay, we also got an update as far as the the numbers of victims who were impacted by the shooting. What was that update 19 people?
Andrew Weber [00:06:45] In total were hit by gunfire. Okay, and what was the number originally? It was originally 14. 14 people hospitalized was the initial number that they put out. They also revised the number of folks in critical care. Initially it was two after Jorge Peterson’s death, or rather it was originally three, then Jorge Peterson passed away and now it’s two people and one of those people is in critical condition.
Jerry Quijano [00:07:06] Okay yeah, this was like a mix of body cam footage, some radio calls, 9-1-1 calls, and the updates that you just provided for us. Was there anything else that stood out to you in this update?
Andrew Weber [00:07:18] Speaking to Acasio’s story, your conversation with her just now, APD did address, they didn’t, rather I should say, they did not address the motive. FBI is leading this investigation. They did, in some of the footage, we did see the shirt that a lot of folks, I imagine, have probably seen online on confirmed reports initially. We saw the suspect wearing a shirt that said property of Allah and committing a shooting seemingly. I think APD has been very, very tight-lipped about motive because the investigation is still ongoing. And I think that to an extent, not to carry water for them, they’re having a measure of sensitivity toward that because APD initially didn’t comment, then Monday, Chief Davis said that Diaghne was wearing a shirt that featured Islamic, excuse me, Iranian. I should say, symbolism on his undershirt under that property of a law shirt, but didn’t really go off any more on that. I think, you know, that’s, we’re going to have to wait for that until the FBI comes out with a final update on the investigation.
Jerry Quijano [00:08:26] Okay, well, we will continue following that. Thank you for being at that press conference, and thank you for making it to Austin Signal today. That is KUT’s government accountability reporter, Andrew Weber. Thank you, Jerry. And last night there was a vigil for the victims here on the UT campus held by the Student Government Association. KUT’s Lee Walden was there and she is with us in the studio now. Lee, thanks for being here.
Leigh Walden [00:08:53] Yeah, thanks for having me.
Jerry Quijano [00:08:54] So tell us a little bit about this vigil. How many people were out there last night? What was it like?
Leigh Walden [00:08:59] Yeah, it’s hard to estimate how many folks exactly were there, but it was hundreds. It was a pretty packed crowd of folks who showed up to come together and mourn together, grieve together, being, leaning on one another and joining in company to remember the folks who were victims of the shooting.
Jerry Quijano [00:09:17] And we know that at least a couple of the victims were Longhorns here on the UT campus, and obviously the ages of a couple of these victims are the ages of a lot of these students who are around us here every single day. You spoke with a student who was out at the Vigil last night Jasmine stores. Tell me about her and what she had to say to you.
Leigh Walden [00:09:37] Yeah, Jasmine was telling me about how her perception of Austin has kind of changed. She was telling about how safe she feels living here now and it goes beyond just this issue, but she was telling that, you know, she doesn’t really have a strong grasp of what it would take for her to feel safer living here in the moment. But she was glad to have this space to be in community with other Longhorns. She came alone, but she felt like she was part of something in this kind of community grieving that happened last night.
Jasmine Stores [00:10:13] I know a lot of students come here, you know, with dreams and goals and pursuits and I know the people who passed away had those and just like that their lives are taken in an instant and so I think it’s very important to just have that understanding that life is very precious. It’s not to be taken for granted and to just hold those that we still have today very close to us because we never know what could happen.
Jerry Quijano [00:10:43] Yeah, very powerful words there for a very tragic time. I can hear it in her voice, I can here it in your voice as well. What else were the messages and the feelings that you were hearing out there?
Leigh Walden [00:10:54] Yeah, we also heard from, this event was by the UT student government. So we also hear from folks from the student government, Hudson Thomas is the student body to president. And he gave comment about how this isn’t just a loss that’s felt on an individual basis, it’s felt by the whole community. And they’re grieving as a collective campus in an absence of any of these students and a hurt from any of the students is felt by everyone across campus. I also spoke to some first years on campus. They were telling me about how it’s kind of slow coming just to come to terms and reflect over how they’re feeling. They’re scared and anxious and really upset. And I think anger is a big part of this too. They’re telling me how they wish part of it kind of instigates change in a lot of different directions, whether that’s better mental health care resources for folks need. All the way to better control of guns, and sitting with tragedy, not becoming insensitized to it, and knowing that even though these sorts of events seem to happen a lot for folks these days, and that they’re constantly hearing about it and feel inundated with these kinds of news, that it doesn’t just kind of wash over them, that people sit with it.
Jerry Quijano [00:12:13] It unfortunately feels like these events happen more often, and sometimes it does feel even being in the news industry that you do get desensitized, and then unfortunately something that’s kind of reinforced in your backyard and you’re forced to grasp with that, or deal with that. Has the university been making resources available to the students? I know the city of Austin had a resource center that popped up earlier in the week. What has UT been doing?
Leigh Walden [00:12:37] Yeah, UT has been definitely trying. I mean, this event itself is kind of the resource. But no, there were people going around the crowd from different offices all over campus, offering resources, tissues, and comfort. And they were making known throughout the entire event that there are resources available on campus and for any students or community members that are struggling to reach out and use some of the help that they are offering.
Jerry Quijano [00:13:01] Okay, we have been speaking with KUT’s Lee Walden. She was out at the vigil last night and did this reporting, along with Kut’s Greta Diaz-Gonzalez-Vasquez. We’re gonna have a link to their story in our show notes today and in the podcast show notes, excuse me, over at kut.org slash Signal. Lee, thanks for being here and I hope you take care of yourself in the coming days. Thank you. This is Austin Signal. This is Austin Signal, welcome back. Award-winning artist Robin Frohart is returning to Austin with a new show that reimagines the parking lot as a complex ecosystem. It combines a hand-built set with puppetry and cinematic projections. Maya Fawaz stopped by the McCullough Theater during rehearsals and brings us this story.
Maya Fawaz [00:13:49] Robin Frohart says her show, Shopping Center of the Universe, started with a parking lot. It kind of sounds like this.
Robin Frohardt [00:14:00] It’s right outside my window, so it’s something that I can’t help but notice.
Maya Fawaz [00:14:04] She’s been living across the street from a Home Depot in Brooklyn for 17 years.
Robin Frohardt [00:14:09] A lot of trucks backing up. And carts and yeah and people hollering there’s so much traffic a truly epic Academy Award-winning honking that like happens there on a daily basis So to summarize her show, I guess the most important thing to know is that I’ve recreated the entire neighborhood in cardboard.
Maya Fawaz [00:14:40] Throwheart is a multidisciplinary artist and puppeteer. In the show, she’s created sets of buildings and cars and animals.
Robin Frohardt [00:14:49] Every part of it has been a challenge.
Maya Fawaz [00:14:52] It’s a crazy idea and she brings it all to life with the help of multiple cameras, sound design, music, and staging.
Robin Frohardt [00:15:01] Sometimes you’re watching the screen, and sometimes you’re watching me, and sometimes you are watching the puppeteers.
Maya Fawaz [00:15:08] So the audience gets a totally different experience, depending on what they’re paying attention to.
Robin Frohardt [00:15:14] I think there’s stuff that you’ll, like, oh, I was watching the screen and I didn’t even see how they were doing it.
Maya Fawaz [00:15:20] And again, everything is made entirely out of cardboard.
Robin Frohardt [00:15:26] It’s kind of funny to me, too, the contrast of all this, like, high-tech camera computer system projectors and then just cardboard.
Maya Fawaz [00:15:35] Frohart has been rehearsing with her team all week before the show opens tomorrow.
Admiral Gray [00:15:40] We want to be above, we want to like be at the pallets, right? Yeah, you want to make sure you don’t cover it. Hi, I’m Admiral Gray and I’m an artist helping to develop Shopping Center of the Year.
Maya Fawaz [00:15:52] By Robin Frohart. Gray has been fixing props and backdrops and figuring out how to adapt all these moving pieces to the McCullough Theater.
Admiral Gray [00:16:03] Am attaching a tiny invisible string to a piece of cardboard for a little two-dimensional Canada goose puppet to look like it’s floating on cardboard water. Does that make any sense?
Maya Fawaz [00:16:23] Gray shows me another prop. It’s a street sweeper. Even the little brushes underneath the truck are made of cardboard.
Admiral Gray [00:16:31] It zooms in on these. Brushes, like cleaning. Brohart sees these at her home depot in New York. Call it the parking lot zamboni. That’s what she calls it. We call them jabroni.
Maya Fawaz [00:16:45] It’s worth mentioning that Frohart collected most of the cardboard from her home depot and the surrounding neighborhood.
Robin Frohardt [00:16:51] It’s a very self-reflective show and also doesn’t take itself very seriously, too.
Maya Fawaz [00:17:00] She says parking lots and big box stores take away from a city’s charm.
Robin Frohardt [00:17:06] Austin, they want to go to the old part of town where all the individually run businesses and bars and restaurants are. That’s the charm of most cities, it’s uniqueness and people really crave that but then we’re like covering every town and these places that could be anywhere which makes them feel like nowhere and they’re just these vast oceans of beige.
Maya Fawaz [00:17:33] FroHardt shows us how these spaces have their own sort of ecosystem.
Robin Frohardt [00:17:39] Even this Home Depot parking lot is a part of nature. It’s teeming with fauna. There are day laborers that are at every entrance. A couple amazing tamale vendors nearby. There are lots of cannibal collectors with their carts. Some people gathering sticks for their nests, I say, with their lumber carts.
Maya Fawaz [00:18:05] If you’re curious to see all this with your own eyes, you can get tickets at the Texas Performing Arts website. There’s a show Friday night and another one Saturday afternoon. Shopping Center of the Universe is touring across the country. Frohart says she loved seeing the audience’s reactions at the show in Massachusetts.
Robin Frohardt [00:18:25] People were like, I’ve never, I always felt this, but I didn’t know how to say it. And I was like, well, I didn’t really say it directly. I like, can’t, I can’t build all this stuff. It’s actually incredibly moving. People cry, but I hope that they laugh, like, equally as much, like, because that’s kind of the balance of hope and despair.
Maya Fawaz [00:18:50] She says, you’ll definitely think about this show the next time you’re in a parking lot. For KT’s Art Beat, I’m Maia Fawaz in Austin.
Jerry Quijano [00:19:08] All right, a nice little radio story there here on Austin Signal. Love to hear that, especially from a familiar voice, Maya Fawaz there. Well, speaking of a familiar name, now we are joined by KUT art beat editor, Stephanie Frederico, back to tell us more about what is happening in Austin this weekend. Howdy, Stephanie.
Stephanie Federico [00:19:27] Hi Jerry.
Jerry Quijano [00:19:28] I’m glad you’re here with us because, you know, this is the weekend before South by Southwest, which means there are lots of people heading into town. People are going to be in cars, waymos all over the place. So it’s a nice weekend to maybe go out and enjoy the city so that next weekend you can play things chill. What’s happening? What’s on your radar this weekend?
Stephanie Federico [00:19:48] Oh my God, there’s so many great things happening this weekend, including that Robin Frohart show that Maya just told us about at the McCullough theater. I’m super excited about that.
Jerry Quijano [00:19:58] You’re going
Stephanie Federico [00:19:59] I am going, I’m very lucky to get, to have gotten tickets. Um, a lot of things also on my radar, like, uh, Austin Creative Alliance is hosting a new, an open house at their new space. Um, tomorrow or sorry, tomorrow’s Friday.
Jerry Quijano [00:20:13] Tomorrow’s Friday, so that’s how this event’s happening Saturday, correct? Saturday, yes.
Stephanie Federico [00:20:16] Saturday. Yes, let’s get it right.
Jerry Quijano [00:20:18] Um…
Stephanie Federico [00:20:19] Open house on Saturday at their new space. I did a story back in November about them moving into property on this church down at 11th and Guadalupe. So the tenants are all moved in, they’ve got this new space, affordable studio space that they’re renting out to artists, and everybody’s all in there now, so they’re having a big open house on Saturday. There’ll be performances, there’ll be art workshops and things like that, and that sounds like it should be really cool.
Jerry Quijano [00:20:47] Okay, I want you to tell me about this show called Clockwork because clocks are a big part of my life, you know, especially on the radio, you have to follow a clock. So what’s going on there?
Stephanie Federico [00:20:58] That is an artist. Her name is Sable Elise Smith. She’s from New York and she has an opening Tomorrow, okay She has an open reception for her exhibit at the Contemporary on Friday. It’s a free Reception for her for her Exhibit called clockwork and it’s on view until August 2nd And the pieces that she created over the last five years include sculpture some video neon and some works on paper It just looks really cool if you go to the Contemporary’s website and kind of look at some of her art. It just, it looks like it could be a really nice exhibit, so.
Jerry Quijano [00:21:34] Okay cool happening on Saturday is this a power point night I’m interested in this because one of our mutual friends used to do these like Sunday gatherings at her house where she would have all these PowerPoint presentations on various topics does this this one that’s happening on Saturday does it have a theme or what kind of stories are being told there.
Stephanie Federico [00:21:51] Well, the funny thing about that is our friend who used to have these symposiums, we used to use…
Jerry Quijano [00:21:56] We used to use symposia.
Stephanie Federico [00:21:57] Yes. Symposiums, we used to have the computer and we would do these PowerPoint presentations, but the one this weekend at the Museum of Human Achievement, there’s no computers. So I think it’s just gonna be really funny and creative. The woman behind it who’s hosting it, Roxie Castillo, I just think she’s really creative and hilarious. And can I read you the description? Do we have time? Because I think the description that they have on website is just… It’s, you know, you’ll want to go. It’s bonkers. The description says, come learn question mark about how Jim Henson really died, food and the ear canal, what THC drinks have to do with the scouts, and new takes on cryptid classics. Prepare yourself for a sampler platter of five minute conspiracy board style presentations illuminating shocking new connections we might have seen sooner if we just opened our minds, a little man. Uh, so there’s like five presenters or actually, I’m not sure how many presenters, but they get, yeah, they get five minutes each to just go up and tell, give their little presentations. And so that sounds like it could be fun.
Jerry Quijano [00:23:04] Okay?
Stephanie Federico [00:23:05] Sliding scale on that, it could be free, it’s up to $10, depending on what you want to pay.
Jerry Quijano [00:23:10] I’d love to hear that. Okay, well let’s wrap up with something that’s happening tomorrow. This is a screening of some kind. What’s happening there?
Stephanie Federico [00:23:18] Oh, this is at Alienated Majestic, and it’s brought to, it is a screening of different literary adaptations from film, and is hosted by the Bat City Cinema at the bookstore. And they’ll be showing 16-millimeter film features of works by like Franz Kafka, Isaac Asimov, and Ogden Marsh, and others, and just sounds like it could be really, be quite cool.
Jerry Quijano [00:23:42] Okay well lots to check out this weekend before I let you get out of here it is membership drive time and I think like you know we’re just taking a little bit of time to highlight the work that we have been doing throughout the year. What do you what are you most proud of of the work you’ve been doing at the Art Beat? Obviously we’re telling these really cool art stories and that are really sound rich right but you’re also presenting community opportunities that maybe are more accessible than other things in the art community.
Stephanie Federico [00:24:07] Yeah, we’re trying to present a mix of things that might be interesting to our audience, showcase some local artists, talk about accessibility and affordability and.
Jerry Quijano [00:24:21] That’s perfect, that is the kind of storytelling that we are able to do here because of listener support and Artbeat is one of the great things that we have added this year and we’re trying to add more and more things like the Austin signal, which you’re tuning into right now. That is the Artbeat editor, Stephanie Federico. Stephanie, thanks for being here with us.
Stephanie Federico [00:24:40] My pleasure, Jerry.
Jerry Quijano [00:24:41] And thank you out there for spending your afternoon or your day, whatever time you’re listening. This is Austin Signal, and we are KUT News community-supported public radio.
This transcript was transcribed by AI, and lightly edited by a human. Accuracy may vary. This text may be revised in the future.
