Federal and native regulation enforcement officers are persevering with to analyze on Monday a potential terrorism motive in a mass shooting over the weekend in Austin, Texas, during which a suspect killed two folks and injured greater than a dozen others earlier than being fatally shot by police.
Throughout a information convention on Monday, Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis recognized the 2 victims killed within the taking pictures as 24-year-old Savitha Shan, a pupil on the College of Texas, and 22-year-old Ryder Harrington, a pupil at Texas Tech College.
Davis mentioned three victims injured within the taking pictures on Sunday stay hospitalized in essential situation, however one was scheduled to be faraway from life assist on Monday. A complete of 14 victims have been injured within the taking pictures, police officers mentioned at an earlier information convention.
The suspect has been recognized as Ndiaga Diagne, a 53-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Senegal, sources with data of the matter informed ABC Information.
Obtained by ABC Information.
The FBI mentioned on Sunday it was investigating a potential terrorism motive for the taking pictures, which started outdoors a bar in Austin’s busy downtown West Sixth Avenue leisure district.
The suspect has been recognized as Ndiaga Diagne, a 53-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Senegal, sources with data of the matter informed ABC Information.
Davis mentioned the suspect was dwelling in Pflugerville, Texas, a suburb of Austin.
The suspect was sporting a sweatshirt that referenced Allah and a T-shirt beneath that referenced Iran, a number of sources with data of the investigation informed ABC Information.
Austin cops work on the scene after a lethal mass taking pictures outdoors Buford’s, a well-liked roadhouse-style bar in Austin, Texas, U.S. March 1, 2026.
Nuri Vallbona/Reuters
ABC Information has obtained {a photograph} taken of the suspect after he was killed that exhibits he was sporting a T-shirt with the Iranian flag on it. Chief Davis mentioned on Monday that the suspect’s T-shirt additionally had the picture of the late Shah of Iran.
In 1979, the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was overthrown within the Iranian Revolution, which ushered within the regime of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
A day earlier than the Austin taking pictures, a major military operation in Iran was launched by the U.S. and Israel, which killed Ayatollah Ali Khomeini, the supreme chief of the nation who had succeeded Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini upon his dying in 1989.
“Our final objective in every part we do is decide a motive,” mentioned Alex Doran, the performing particular agent answerable for the FBI’s San Antonio subject workplace. “We’re on the lookout for connections that he [the suspect] presumably had.”
Doran introduced on Sunday that investigators have been probing terrorism as a potential motive, saying, “There have been indicators on the topic and in his automobile that point out potential nexus to terrorism.”
Throughout Monday’s information convention, Doran mentioned it might be untimely to make a willpower on motive.
“We’re poring via hundreds of hours of video. We’ve huge quantities of digital and bodily proof. And that is an around-the-clock, 24-hour investigation at this level,” Doran mentioned.
Doran added, “We need to ensure that we’ve got our information 100%.”
Davis mentioned investigators are interviewing about 150 witnesses.
Davis mentioned police are nonetheless going over the suspect’s felony historical past and plan to launch particulars later this week.
She mentioned the gun the suspect used within the taking pictures was bought legally in 2017 in San Antonio.
Davis mentioned 911 callers started reporting a taking pictures on West Sixth Avenue in downtown Austin simply earlier than 2 a.m. on Sunday. She mentioned the 911 callers acknowledged that somebody was taking pictures round Buford’s Bar.
Davis mentioned the suspect drove a big SUV a number of instances across the block that Buford’s is situated on, firing a gun at folks out of his rolled-down window, placing patrons of the bar on the institution’s patio and outdoors the entrance door.
Davis mentioned the suspect then parked his automobile, obtained out and opened hearth on folks gathered on the sidewalk.
The suspect was killed in a confrontation with cops, who have been already staged within the metropolis’s leisure district when the taking pictures broke out, Davis mentioned.
A regulation enforcement unit sits on the entrance to Buford’s bar in downtown Austin, Texas, March 01, 2026, in Austin, after a mass taking pictures left three folks, together with the alleged gunman, useless and 14 others hospitalized.
Brandon Bell/Getty Photographs
Austin Mayor Kirk Watson mentioned that because of the fast response of police and emergency medical companies, “A number of lives have been saved.”
Harrington, one of many victims killed within the rampage, was a pupil at Texas Tech College and was an energetic member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, which launched a press release about him.
“Ryder was a beloved son, brother, and good friend whose kindness and presence touched numerous lives,” his fraternity mentioned. “From the second he joined our brotherhood, he introduced a lightweight that was unattainable to disregard.”
The fraternity added, “Ryder had a uncommon capability to get pleasure from life, to make folks chuckle, to make moments really feel greater, and to make strange days unforgettable. If anybody embodied what it meant to stay totally and love deeply, it was Ryder.”
Shan, the opposite sufferer killed within the taking pictures, was a pupil on the College of Texas, officers mentioned.
Ryder Harrington, a pupil at Texas Tech College, seen right here in a photograph offered on Instagram by his fraternity, was one in every of two victims killed in Sunday’s mass taking pictures in Austin, Texas.
@ttubeta/Instagram
“At this time, it was confirmed that amongst those that misplaced their lives is one UT pupil. A baby of loving mother and father. A loyal good friend to many. A Longhorn getting ready to vary the world,” Jim Davis, president of the College of Texas, mentioned in a press release about Shan. “It’s devastating, and I do know all of us are grieved by this horrible information and we are going to keep in mind her.”
Jim Davis additionally mentioned a lot of College of Texas college students sustained accidents within the assault.
“A few of these are very severe and we hope for the perfect outcomes, whereas others are on the trail to restoration,” Jim Davis mentioned. “I’ve met with many of those households and can proceed to wish for them. The entire households, buddies, and family members affected by this tragedy will want time for grief and therapeutic, and we provide them our full assist.”
