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After a mass shooting at last year’s event, the chief said police will be interacting with the crowd.

ROUND ROCK, Texas — Round Rock Police Chief Allen Banks wants to make it clear: The deadly shooting at last year’s Juneteenth celebration, which killed two women, was not an attack on the event. 

“It was an attack against two groups of people, which caused this tragedy. [For] 17 years, we’ve gone without a problem with this event,” Banks said. 

Both victims, 54-year-old Ara Duke and 33-year-old Lyndsey Vicknair, were innocent bystanders.

The city is hosting this year’s Juneteenth festival on Friday and Saturday, with Mayor Craig Morgan focused on moving forward with respect to the lives lost. 

“I just think it’s important in the healing process to continue to have these events,” Morgan said. 

According to the city, security protocols at every public event are tweaked, ranging from the number of officers that serve to changing the layout of the operations. 

“Our officers will be amongst the crowd. This year, we’re going to be out and about. We’re going to be very visible,” Banks said. 

This year’s event will take place in a different area of Old Settlers Park and will be smaller in size due to some construction of voter-approved bond projects. The city will also have crowd monitoring devices like SkyWatch towers, drone surveillance and on-site medical response teams. 

The mayor said metal detectors will not be there because there will be multiple entry points. 

Banks and Morgan said they want to make it clear: They cannot control evil. 

“But what we can do is be a force out there,” Banks said. 

Before the event kicks off, Morgan said the city will honor the two women killed, along with other victims who were hurt. 

The festival starts off on Friday with a Taste Barbecue cookoff at 6 p.m. For more information, click here.