We have a few fears about staying in hotels, usually centered around someone breaking into our room and the hotel overcharging us for WiFi, but now we have “shootout” to add to the list.
A gunman walked into the lobby of the Omni Hotel Downtown Austinand killed a 60-year-old cab driver, before being shot to death by police offers. The incident happened at around 5am on Sunday morning, after 911 received a call from the hotel with a report of a man walking around the lobby carrying a gun. Police arrived on the scene to find a man carrying a rifle and a body on the ground. When the suspect pointed the gun at police, they returned gunfire, killing him near the hotel’s restaurant.
The gunman was later identified as Michael Holt, who rented a desk from a start-up incubator called Capital Factory, which has operations inside the Omni Hotel’s building. This shooting comes nearly a week after another deranged gunman killed 27 tourists in Tunisia.
We suspect the restaurant will be out of service at the Omni Hotel for at least a few days while the crime scene continues to be investigated but you’d never know that from the Omni Hotel’s website which makes no note of the incident or of any closures. Omni Hotel’s Facebook page has also remained silent on the matter. We reached out to an Omni rep but have not heard back with a comment on the shooting.
Tomorrow, the hotel is hosting Trailer Food Tuesdays and according to that group’s Facebook page, the event is still on. We found rooms at the hotel tomorrow night starting from $ 269.
[Photo: Omni Hotels]