The FBI’s joint terrorism taskforce has been called in to help investigate a deadly mass shooting in downtown Austin, Texas, on Sunday in which a gunman opened fire in front of a bar popular with university students, killing two people and injuring 14 others before being fatally shot by police.
An FBI official, Alex Doran, told reporters at a press conference that it was too early to determine the shooter’s motivation.
But he added that evidence found on the suspect and in his car indicated a “potential nexus to terrorism”, while an intelligence group said the shooter had expressed “pro-Iranian regime sentiment”.
The Associated Press reported that officials had identified the suspect as Ndiaga Diagne, 53, a US citizen who first came to the US in 2000 from Senegal, married an American six years later and naturalised in 2013. He spent some years in New York before moving to Texas.
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Law enforcement sources told Reuters that in addition to investigating potential terrorist motivations, investigators are also looking at the suspect’s previous history of mental health issues.
Fox News said it had obtained a photograph of the suspect carrying a rifle and wearing a light-coloured sweatshirt saying “Property of Allah”. The Associated Press for its part reported being told by a law enforcement official that the gunman indeed wore that sweatshirt – as well as another with an Iranian flag design.
The Site Intelligence Group said on Sunday that Diagne had expressed “pro-Iranian regime sentiment and hatred for Israeli and American leadership” in Facebook posts dating back to 2017 – and had posted a picture of himself holding what appears to be an assault rifle.
The city’s police chief, Lisa Davis, described the violence as a “tragic, tragic incident”, with the first calls about it being made to emergency services from Buford’s bar in West Sixth Street at 1.59am.
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Davis said the attacker drove a large sport-utility vehicle, circled the block several times and then fired a pistol from the car, according to the Austin American-Statesman.
The gunman then exited the SUV with a rifle and continued firing, Davis said.
Police responded within 57 seconds of the first emergency call, according to officials. When officers arrived at the bar, they were immediately confronted by a male gunman pointing a weapon at them, Davis said in an early morning press conference. They returned fire and killed the suspect.
By then, two bar customers had been killed. Fourteen more people were shot with injuries that required hospital treatment, three of whom were described to be in critical condition.
Videos taken inside the bar and posted on social media showed several people lying on the floor being treated by paramedics. One woman who was administering CPR to an individual lying on their back can be heard in the video shouting: “Please help me – I need help.”
As the FBI deepened its investigation into possible terrorist motives behind the mass shooting, the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, put out a statement that explicitly referenced possible threats linked to the US-Israel strikes on Iran.
He specifically warned “anyone who thinks about using the current conflict in the Middle East to threaten Texans or our critical infrastructure”.
Abbott said that Texas would respond to any such hostility “with decisive and overwhelming force to protect our state”.
The governor has ordered increased patrols and surveillance across the state by the Texas national guard and law enforcement.
Austin is the state capital of Texas with just over 1 million people. Its mayor, Kirk Watson, told reporters that he was thankful for the swift response of public safety officers.
The emergency medical services chief of Austin, Robert Luckritz, said that police officers and paramedics were routinely embedded in the city’s downtown entertainment district at the weekend, which meant they were able to respond within seconds.
Eyewitnesses and bystanders spoke of the horrifying nature of the attack. “I heard screaming and yelling and crying,” Jeremiah Carbajal, a concierge at a nearby residential building, told the Austin American-Statesman. – Guardian and AP
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