By P.J. Huffstutter and Jana Winter
March 1 (Reuters) – The man suspected of fatally shooting at least two people and injuring 14 others at a bar in Austin, Texas, had a history of mental health issues, officials said on Sunday, while the FBI was looking into a possible terrorism link.
The gunman was killed in an exchange of fire with law enforcement officers at the scene, police said. Three people remain in critical condition, police said.
Law enforcement officials said the suspect had a history of mental health conditions, according to an internal update from the National Counterterrorism Center reviewed by Reuters.
A law enforcement official told Reuters that the shooter wore a shirt with an Iranian flag and “IRAN” spelled out in green, white and red across the front. He was also wearing a sweatshirt that said “Property of Allah” on it, the official said.
Authorities are investigating whether the suspect was motivated by the joint U.S.-Israel strike on Iran, the official told Reuters.
The shooter was identified as Ndiaga Diagne, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Senegal, according to the Counterterrorism Center’s update.
Law enforcement agencies have not publicly released the name of the shooter or identified a specific motive. Alex Doran, acting special agent in charge of the FBI’s San Antonio field office, told reporters on Sunday, “There were indicators on the subject, and in his vehicle, that indicate a potential nexus to terrorism.”
The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force is working with the Austin Police Department on the investigation, which includes staff from the federal agency’s evidence response and digital forensic teams, Doran said at Sunday’s press conference.
President Donald Trump has been briefed on the shooting, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a post on social media on Sunday.
The mass shooting happened outside Buford’s, a popular bar in the West 6th Street stretch of Austin — known as the heart of the city’s music and nightlife area, and for its food trucks, according to local media reports.
Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis told reporters the shooter drove an SUV multiple times around the block where the bar is located. At one point, the shooter turned on his hazard lights, rolled down the window and used a pistol to shoot patrons on Buford’s patio and in front of the bar, Davis said. The shooter then drove west, parked the vehicle and got out, and started firing at people who were walking by, she said.
Police officers fatally shot the man at a nearby intersection, Davis said.
Law enforcement and emergency services were already in the area because of crowds that tend to gather there on weekends, Davis said. The speed of the response saved multiple lives, she said.
The incident marked the 56th U.S. mass shooting this year and the one with the most victims so far, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as an incident in which at least four people, not including the shooter, are injured or killed by gunfire.
The U.S. had 407 mass shootings last year, according to archive data.
(Reporting by P.J. Huffstutter in Chicago and Jana Winter in Washington; Additional reporting by Federica Mileo in Barcelona; Editing by Sergio Non, Paul Simao, Lisa Shumaker and Christian Schmollinger)
