A third victim has died from the Buford’s shooting, Austin Police say

From KUT News:

Austin Police have identified three people killed in Sunday’s shooting at a bar on West Sixth Street as investigators said they were still working to determine why the shooter opened fire.

The shooting at Buford’s bar early Sunday left four dead, including the suspected shooter, and as many as 13 others wounded. At a news conference on Monday, Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis named two victims: 19-year-old Ryder Harrington and 21-year-old Savitha Shan.

Late Monday, APD released the name of a third victim who has died: 30-year-old Jorge Pederson. Davis had stated earlier at the press conference that a person hospitalized from the shooting was expected to be taken off life support later that day.

Before APD updated on Pederson’s condition, Austin-Travis County EMS had said 14 people were hospitalized and three of those victims were in critical condition.

Police identified 53-year-old Ndiaga Diagne as the man who allegedly fired into the bar from a vehicle before exiting the car and shooting into crowds near the popular bar. Officers responded within a minute of receiving the first 911 call, police said, and fatally shot Diagne early Sunday morning.

In a news conference Monday, Austin Mayor Kirk Watson praised the speed of the city’s first responders, but he also praised the people of Austin for supporting one another amid a traumatic event.

“I want to also say how proud I am and how the people that are this city have reacted with such great compassion,” Watson said. “We’re all mourning together and grieving as a group, but we’re seeing tremendous compassion and love coming out of the people of Austin.”

APD is investigating the incident along with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force. Chief Davis said Monday that Diagne was wearing a shirt related to Iran.

On Sunday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott warned against potential attacks stemming from U.S. actions in Iran.

“To anyone who thinks about using the current conflict in the Middle East to threaten Texans or our critical infrastructure, understand this clearly: Texas will respond with decisive and overwhelming force to protect our state,” he said.

Both APD and the FBI said Diagne was not on their radar before the shooting, but stopped short of saying whether the incident met the definition of terrorism.

FBI Special Agent in Charge Alex Doran called it an act of “targeted violence,” but that investigators had not yet found an “ultimate motivation.”

“It’s always very difficult to determine what’s in an individual’s mind that leads them to commit this type of violence,” he said. “So we will continue to … pore through the evidence, talk to witnesses, talk to friends, talk to associates that knew this person.”

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security confirmed to KUT News that Diagne is originally from Senegal and first came to the U.S. in 2000, when he entered on a tourist visa. He was married in 2006 and was naturalized in 2013, according to DHS. The department also noted that Diagne was arrested in 2022 in Texas following a car crash.

Diagne’s Texas driver’s license lists his home address in Pflugerville at a residential property searched by police Sunday. The vehicle seen at the crime scene outside Buford’s matches the make and model of a Cadillac SUV registered to Diagne in 2017. That vehicle was registered to a San Antonio address along with another vehicle that was owned by Diagne’s ex-wife, who filed for divorce in Bexar County in 2022, according to court records.

Police have not identified additional victims who sustained injuries.

In a statement, UT Austin president Jim Davis acknowledged the death of Shan, calling her a “Longhorn preparing to change the world.”

“It is devastating, and I know all of us are grieved by this horrible news and we will remember her,” he said.

Davis also said a “number” of students were injured in the shooting and offered the university’s “full support” for those who are recovering.

After makeshift memorials cropped up outside the bar Monday morning, Buford’s owners released its first statement after the shooting, extending condolences to victims and their families.

“No words can adequately express the sorrow we feel for those who lost loved ones or were injured,” the statement read. “These were young people with their whole lives ahead of them, and our thoughts and prayers are with every family impacted.”

Watch Monday’s 1 p.m. police news conference below:

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