AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Newly released police body camera footage shows a gunman opening fire outside a Texas bar, killing three people and sending bar patrons and passers-by running and taking cover in an incident that is being investigated as a potential terrorism incident.
“Everybody get down!” an officer yelled. “Where is he?”
Horrifying moments captured by police and surveillance cameras released Thursday show a shooting that left more than a dozen people injured early Sunday in Austin’s downtown entertainment district.
Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said police arrived within 56 seconds of the first 911 call and fatally shot the suspect after he fired at officers.
Davis said the investigation was ongoing and would not discuss possible motives for the shooting, which erupted a day after the United States and Israel launched an attack on Iran.
The FBI said it was investigating the shooting as a potential act of terrorism, and a law enforcement official told The Associated Press that the gunman was wearing clothing emblazoned with the Iranian flag and emblazoned with the words “Property of Allah.”
Police have identified the shooter as 53-year-old Ndiaga Diagne and said the handgun and rifle he used in the attack outside a Buford backyard beer garden were purchased legally. The venue is located on Sixth Street, a nightlife destination full of bars and music clubs near the University of Texas at Austin.
Davis said Thursday that authorities now know 19 people were shot, three of whom died. One person remains in critical condition.
She said most of the people who were shot were outside the bar, including one victim who was waiting for a ride.
Screams and yells of “get down” can be heard in the 911 call released Thursday. “There was a shooting at the Buford house,” one caller said. “Someone died here. We need help now.”
Diagne was not on the radar of authorities before he opened fire early Sunday. Davis said investigators found he was the subject of possible mental health-related welfare checks by other agencies in 2022.
Police said he fired the first shot from the SUV, then parked the vehicle and emerged with the rifle. Davis said he shot another man and then police rushed to the intersection and shot him.
Jorge Pederson, 30, an aspiring mixed martial arts fighter, died Monday of a gunshot wound. He had just moved to Texas from Minnesota. His former gym, Academy Martial Arts Gym, said in a Facebook post that he “brought light and joy to the hard work of training.”
Also killed were 21-year-old Savitha Shan and 19-year-old Ryder Harrington.
Shan, a business student at the University of Texas at Austin, was awaiting employment with a consulting firm, her family said in a statement released through the university. The statement said she was an only child and called her death “extremely unfair.”
Harrington enrolled at Texas Tech University last fall, and his former Beta Theta Pi fraternity brothers recalled his ability to “make ordinary days memorable” in an Instagram post.
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Associated Press writers Jim Vertuno in Austin and Heather Hollingsworth in Mission, Kan.; John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio; and Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington contributed.