The Austin Police Department on Thursday released new information about the man who carried out the West Sixth Street shooting, including details about a welfare check in 2022 and a minute-by-minute account of how the violence unfolded early Sunday morning.
The new revelations come as court records and other background information continue to reveal a clearer picture of a man with a documented history of violence. Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said the welfare check came from an agency out of New York, where Ndiaga Diagne previously lived, but provided little clarity about why it was conducted or who initiated it.
“I don’t know that they had enough to do a commitment for him. I think what I’m hearing is they gave him resources to call,” she said.
Police on Thursday said the total number of people shot was 19 – a slight increase from earlier reports – in the Sunday morning shooting at Buford’s on West Sixth Street, one of Austin’s busiest nightlife corridors. Authorities said three of the victims died and identified them as 30-year-old Jorge Pederson, 21-year-old Savitha Shan and 19-year-old Ryder Harrington. Shan and Harrington were killed Sunday morning, and Pederson died from his injuries Monday, police said. As of Thursday afternoon, one person remains in critical condition.
Court records show a judge found Diagne, 53, had a pattern of family violence, a civil ruling that didn’t bar him from owning firearms under Texas law. The documents, obtained by The Texas Tribune and Austin Current, highlight how findings in family court can fail to trigger criminal penalties or gun restrictions, even as research links domestic violence histories to mass shootings.
Diagne’s ex-wife, Aissatou Savare, filed for divorce in Bexar County, where the couple lived at the time, in March 2022. In September of that year, a judge found Diagne had a “history or pattern of committing family violence” during their marriage.
New details of the shooting emerge
Chief Lisa Davis also provided more information on what happened early Sunday morning, including releasing portions of the involved officer’s body camera footage, surveillance video and 911 call recordings, and detailing Diagne was carrying an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle.
Davis said responding officers and paramedics arrived at Burford’s within 57 seconds of receiving the first 911 call reporting a shooting. Investigators say Diagne drove southbound on Rio Grande Street, parked in front of Buford’s and began shooting a semi-automatic handgun at a crowd standing outside of the bar.
Diagne then exited his vehicle with the AR-15, shot a pedestrian and began moving toward the bar. Once officers arrived, Davis said witnesses directed them to Diagne’s location. After an exchange of gunfire between the suspect and three officers, Diagne was struck multiple times and died.
The FBI has called the shooting a “potential act of terrorism,” and its Joint Terrorism Task Force is involved in the investigation. An FBI agent earlier this week told reporters the agency was poring through thousands of hours of video and “massive amounts of both digital and physical evidence.”
In the Thursday update, Davis said investigators are actively reviewing evidence collected, but the department is “not ready to talk about exactly what that nexus [to terrorism] is.”
Police shared images of Diagne wearing a sweatshirt with “Property of Allah” across the front and a shirt with an Iranian flag design during the shooting, which took place amid the heightened tensions between the U.S. and Iran. The police chief said Monday the suspected gunman had obtained the firearms legally in San Antonio in 2017.
Local and federal investigators executed search warrants at properties connected to Diagne, one in Pflugerville and the other in Del Valle. A representative from the Travis County District Attorney’s office said the search warrants would be sealed for 30 days.
The Department of Homeland Security said Diagne entered the country from Senegal on a tourist visa in 2000, became a lawful permanent resident after marrying a U.S. citizen in 2006 and was naturalized in 2013. He has been married two more times since then, according to court documents.
DHS said Diagne was arrested in Texas in 2022 for a collision with a vehicle, causing damage. Both the FBI and APD said Diagne was not on their radars prior to the shooting.
