Round Rock Juneteenth shooting victims speak out after tragedy

Violence ravaged the Round Rock community over the weekend at the city’s annual Juneteenth celebration after at least one person opened fire into a crowd of people. Two women were killed and 14 people between the ages of 10 and 62 were injured.

The women who died were 33-year-old Lyndsey Vicknair from Manor and 54-year-old Ara Duke from Pflugerville, Round Rock police said on X. Police are still searching for at least one person who they believe shot the crowd. The person is described as a 19 to 20-year-old Black man who is about 5-foot-7 with a thin build and short dreadlocks, according to the police.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced on Tuesday, June 18, that a $10,000 reward is being offered for information on the “person or persons involved in the shooting.” In addition to the reward from the Governor’s Office, Williamson County Crime Stoppers is offering $5,000 and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is offering $5,000.

The community is left to pick up the pieces. A friend of Vicknair, Candice Cooper, set up a GoFundMe on her family’s behalf asking for public aid in fundraising money to help support the family’s medical and funeral expenses. Cooper is the co-founder of the Austin Honey Badgers Track Club, in which Vicknair was a beloved member.  

“Lyndsey’s life was marked by her contagious smile, thoughtfulness, and her unwavering willingness to help others. Her absence is felt deeply by all who knew her,” Cooper said in the GoFundMe description. 

Vicknair leaves behind her husband Kevin and their three young children: 7-year-old Kenzi, 4-year-old Kairo and 1-year-old Kya. In an update to the GoFundMe, Cooper shared words from Kevin, who said only he and Vicknair attended the Juneteenth festival, not their kids. 

Kevin said Vicknair was an attorney “who would help people regardless of whether she was familiar with the subject area or not.” 

“I can’t put into words what they took from me and my kids. They took something that God gave me to take care of and be responsible for. They took a mother who loved her family as well as her community,” Kevin said in a second GoFundMe update. “She was a genius and the woman who helped me grow as a man and a husband. She forced me to grow by being so great, and I never wanted to hold her back from achieving greatness. I made sure I did what I needed to do to satisfy my wife.”

The GoFundMe has raised over $25,000 of its $100,000 goal as of Tuesday, June 18. 

Another man who was at the celebration during the shooting with his family told MySA that Vicknair was a colleague of his partner’s, who is also an Austin-area attorney. The man, who goes by Noivas, said he, his partner Elissa Henry, and their two children were about 30 feet away from the shooter when they started hearing the gunfire.

“The chaos erupted so quickly, and the sound of gunfire was deafening, but I’m a gun owner and self-defense trainer and I know what a gun spins like I immediately know what it was,” Noivas said to MySA. “We grabbed our children and fell to the ground. I scanned for an exit to ensure our survival. It felt surreal, like a scene from a movie or a military operation, but this was real life.”

He said he and his family ran past people falling to the ground, people screaming in agony and first responders performing CPR on the injured to get to their car.

“This is not normal. This should never happen at a celebration of unity and freedom,” Noivas said. “While my family and I are safe, our hearts go out to the victims and their families. We are deeply saddened for those who lost loved ones and for those injured by this horrific act. Our thoughts are with them during this difficult time.”

Sam Ray told MySA he and his group had only been at the Juneteenth party for about an hour when the shooting happened. He didn’t hear the gunshots because he was wearing ear protection, and his girlfriend said she did hear them but didn’t realize it was a real shooting at first. The couple was not close to the shooting when it occurred, and they were able to meet up with the rest of their group and exit the park safely.

“The event was very dark, with no lighting for pathways or similar, so that made it hard to navigate and hard to realize what was going on,” Ray said. “After they started evacuating the park, it was surprisingly calm for the most part. The only people I saw running were police/EMS. Getting out was a hassle because there was so many people there trying to leave all at once.”