31 October 2023
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – A man who tried to stop the shooter who killed two at a Dodge City bar over the weekend is in the intensive care unit with three bullet wounds. Witnesses say he tackled the shooter.
Austin Zink was working as a bouncer at Central Station Bar and Grill in Dodge City when the shooting happened.
He’s now in the ICU at a Wichita hospital and is expected to live.
His sister said she was surprised the shooting happened but not surprised that the father of three jumped in to help.
The sound of a ringing phone jolted Jessica Zink awake in the early hours of Sunday morning.
She couldn’t have predicted the news on the other end of the line.
“Shock, I was horrified,” Jessica said.
She felt a sense of dread as she made her way from Kansas City to Wichita.
“All I knew was he had been shot three times,” Jessica said.
Her brother was being rushed to the hospital with one bullet in the arm and another in his hip.
“The worst one was his abdomen,” Jessica said.
A surgeon told Jessica the bullet missed Austin’s aorta and the main veins of his heart by half an inch.
“Thank goodness all the major things he could have hit were missed,” Jessica said.
His injuries happened while Austin tried to save lives.
“He just said, ‘I just tackled him, I just jumped on him.’ He’s like, ‘I don’t know why I did it, it just happened,” Jessica said.
“Unfortunately, the guy was able to wiggle free of Austin’s grip, and he just started shooting Austin,” she said.
Jessica says Austin’s actions Sunday night are not out of character.
“The shooter was still gonna open fire, so Austin just did what he always does and protects other people,” Jessica said.
Austin is expected to move out of the ICU on Monday and be discharged from the hospital within the next week.
He isn’t expected to have any permanent damage from his injuries, but Jessica says he will be unable to work for several weeks.
Donations to his GoFundMe are set to go toward his medical expenses.