Around 4:30am on 8/19, my friend Zach ran up to the Wal-Mart in Cedar Park (Austin area) to get food with his girlfriend and his friend Cody. Upon arriving, he ended up seeing people arguing and starting to fight and then some gangbanger pulled out a revolver and shot 5 people, including Zach and Cody. They weren't even involved in the fight that was going on and this guy shot Zach first, then Cody. Theres about a 70-80% chance that Zach will never use his right arm again, and Cody as far as I know is okay.
http://austin.ynn.com/content/top_stories/286976/cedar-park-walmart-shooting-stemmed-from-nearby-party
Whats wrong is that this guy Solomon shot 5 people (from what Zach told me, this news story is wrong about the # of people shot) including his own friend (whom he shot twice) and he's only being charged with aggravated assault and I'm not too happy with the fact that this guy isn't even getting attempted murder. But what I'm really coming to is that nobody ever thinks it'll happen to them or someone they know, but it can and it will and I found that out today. I pray that justice will be done and the shooter won't just get aggravated assault and I'm hoping they charge him with attempted murder too and I'm thankful that Zach came out of it alive. Don't take your friends for granted, cause they could be here today and gone tomorrow.
Thank you. 
Prayers for your friends.
Just to satisfy my own curiosity, were your friends not at the party discussed in all of the news articles and press conference? It begs the question, since all of the folks involved were of the same age.
It also seems that the odds are extremely high that 3 people, unrelated to the incident at the party became hungry at 0430 (if they weren't partying) decided to go to the Wal-Mart at the same exact time that the folks fighting at the party had made an arrangement to meet there to settle the dispute.
In addition, since it doesn't seem likely that two groups mentioned as having this dispute would take the fight to the main entrance of the Wal-Mart, but rather a non-populated part of the parking lot. as would make sense, I am also curious as to how or why your friends were obliged to park so close to such an scene/incident as to be injured when it would seem that parking would not have been at a premium at 0430 on a Sunday morning.
Furthermore, traditionally these types of altercations result in a "circle" of spectators. If your friends were un-involved, innocent bystanders, that did not know what was going on and were not included in the group of spectators, how did not only one, but two of your friends manage to catch a bullet? It is perfectly normal and human nature to watch a fight, otherwise there would bot be boxing matches, WWF and UFC fights on pay-per-view and I would not fault your friends for tagging along.
Upon reading as many articles as I could find and watching the press conference, it appears that:
There was an argument at a party where a lot of folks were drinking
It was agreed that the argument would be settled somewhere else (as to possibly not insult the host or have the cops bust the host for underage drinking? mind you, these are my guesses and I have seen it happen like this in the past)
There was an entourage of onlookers that followed the ones with the dispute.
The shooter got his arse whooped (he was hospitalized due to non-gunshot injuries)
He couldn't take his arse-whooping like a man and started shooting up the place
Folks (possible ones not directly involved) took some bullets because the shooter was drunk, had no knowledge of how to shoot or a combination of both.
None of the articles, nor the press conference mentions anything about the shooting being gang-related (which is usually a big deal the the media jumps upon), nor was their any mention of the shooter being a "gangbanger" How did you come across with this information?
As for the lack of attempted murder charges? Most states define attempted murder as, the attempted unlawful killing of another person, but the person didn't die. In this case, with the evidence available, at this time, there is no proof that the shooter had any obvious intentions of actually killing anyone (i.e. making statements to the fact that he was, or targeting one particular person), but this may change as more evidence comes to light.
Aggravated assault is defined as the assailing of someone with the use of some kind of object besides one's bare hands (even including a rock or burning someone with a cigarette butt) In some cases an argument for aggravated assault can be made if the assailant is proven to be trained in the art of, or very good at hand-to-hand combat when compared to the average citizen.
Again, my prayers to your friends. I wish them a speedy recovery.
