Third victim of West 6th Street shooting identified as investigation continues
Bouquets of flowers are placed outside Buford’s on west 6th street in Downtown Austin, Texas on Monday, March 2, 2026. Three people are dead including a shooter and 14 others were injured in a mass shooting at Buford’s on Sunday, March 1, 2026.
Aaron E. Martinez/Austin American-Statesman
Local and federal officials continue to investigate a mass shooting that left four people dead — including the shooter — and 13 others injured in the area surrounding Buford’s, a bar in Austin’s popular West Sixth Street entertainment district, early Sunday morning.
Officials have identified the shooting suspect as Ndiaga Diagne, a Senegalese native who became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2013. The 53-year-old was shot and killed by Austin police during a rampage that is now being investigated by the FBI as a possible act of terrorism.
Although an agency official said it was too early to determine a motive, authorities disclosed that Diagne was wearing clothing that bore an image of the Iranian flag and the words “Property of Allah.”
The shooting, which came one day after the U.S. and Israel launched a joint strike on Iran, erupted just before 2 a.m. outside Buford’s bar in the 700 block of West Sixth Street. Authorities have not confirmed any connection.
Monday’s live updates have concluded. Read more shooting coverage on statesman.com.
9:40 p.m.: Shooting victim’s former fraternity holds candlelight vigil
A day after recent Texas Tech University student Ryder Harrington was gunned down outside an Austin bar, the 19-year-old’s friends and former fraternity brothers gathered 400 miles northwest to remember him.
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Members of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity’s Texas Tech chapter led a candlelight vigil in Lubbock Monday night, drawing several hundred people from the Texas Tech community to Greek Circle to reflect on Harrington’s life.
Attendees said the solemn gathering remained largely quiet as mourners lit candles. Fraternity members recalled memories of Harrington before playing Jeff Buckley’s cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.”
At the end of the event, the brothers gathered everyone into a large circle, recited the Lord’s Prayer and sang the fraternity’s signature song, attendees said.
Harrington last attended Texas Tech in the fall of 2025 and was a 2024 Beta pledge, according to the fraternity.
“From the moment he joined our brotherhood, he brought a light that was impossible to ignore,” reads a statement from the chapter. “Ryder had a rare ability to truly enjoy life to make people laugh, to make moments feel bigger, and to make ordinary days unforgettable. If anyone embodied what it meant to live fully and love deeply, it was Ryder.”
-Alex Driggars, Transportation Reporter
9:15 p.m.: Bars reopen Monday along West Sixth Street
A woman who only gave her first name, Anna, laid flowers down at the memorial in front of Buford’s on Monday evening. As a native Austinite and UT Austin graduate, she said her friends have made many memories at the bar, which is frequented by college students.
“It’s been really beautiful to see everyone come together and support the community and each other. It’s just been incredibly heartbreaking,” she said. “I wanted to come pay my respects to everyone involved.”
She was unsure how the shooting would affect people’s willingness to return to the area, but hoped people would “still come together and celebrate each other in amazing spaces even in difficult times,” she said.
Aaron Singleterry, another native Austinite, also came to visit the memorial with his friend. He worries that people may get too desensitized to shooting events.
“We’re living in history. This is one of the first few times that something has happened in our generation here in Texas,” Singleterry said. “When the morale is down, we all feel it. But it’s in our nature to congregate and mourn together.”
Crowds in West Sixth Street bars were sparse, but a few patrons came out for a drink or game of pool despite the lingering police tape.
Phillip Nucha is from Boston, but he stopped for a drink at Woody’s while visiting for a work conference. He said his company sent out a warning that there was a safety risk in Austin and left the decision to travel to his discretion. He chose to come.
“I’m not scared of what happened,” Nucha said. “It was a freak event, it could happen anywhere. I don’t want my life being dictated by terror. I’ll go out despite it.”
-Mars Salazar, Music Reporter
8 p.m.: Death toll rises as third victim of Austin mass shooting dies
A third person has died as a result of the Austin mass shooting, the American-Statesman learned Monday evening. He is identified as 30-year-old Jorge Pederson. Earlier in the day Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said that a victim was going to be removed from life support as a result of his injuries.
-Tony Plohetski, Investigative Reporter
Piper Leleux, 21, places a bouquet of flowers at a memorial for victims of the mass shooting at Buford’s bar on West Sixth Street in Austin, Texas, on Monday, March 2, 2026. Leleux said she was working at the Toke Truck near the entrance and witnessed the shooting, taking cover nearby as gunfire erupted. “I never, ever thought that this could happen in Austin,” she said. “It’s heartbreaking.”
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
5:58 p.m.: New details emerge about shooting suspect Diagne’s life
While law enforcement authorities have offered scant details about the shooter suspected of killing two college students and injuring 14 others, public records and interviews paint a picture of an elusive man who investigators say may have operated as a lone terrorist.
Diagne’s path to Austin began in 2000, when he came to the U.S. on a visa from his native Senegal. He became a legal permanent resident in 2006 through marriage and a naturalized citizen in 2013.
Public records show Diagne married a woman, Aissatou Savare, in March 2012, and moved to San Antonio from the Bronx in New York in 2017.
Savare, who worked at one time as a Texas real estate agent, filed for divorce from Diagne in Bexar County in March 2022, according to court records. Savare retained an attorney to represent her during the divorce, but Diagne did not and instead chose to represent himself, online records show.
In the divorce petition, Savare’s lawyer said Diagne was “guilty of cruel treatment toward petitioner of a nature that renders further living together insupportable.”
Diagne responded to the divorce petition in a two-page handwritten letter, filed with the court on March 28, 2022. In the letter, he accused Savare of refusing to let him see their two sons.
“I totally disagree and quite frankly feel insulted by the many false statements in the filing,” Diagne wrote. “The only reason I am here is out of care and mercy for my ex-wife or about to be ex-wife, because she knows full well in our culture and religion we do not need a marriage certificate to be husband and wife.”
The divorce was finalized in September 2022, according to Bexar County records, which indicate the couple’s two sons are now 9 and 12 years old.
Until about a year ago, Diagne lived in a modest residential area in Northeast San Antonio, according to a neighbor. The home is in the 4000 block of Indian Sunrise, a neighborhood of one-story wood-frame houses in a mixed industrial-residential part of the city. It’s unclear why Diagne moved to the Austin area.
On Sunday, law enforcement breached a home in Pflugerville as part of their investigation. They also breached a unit at a sprawling apartment complex in Del Valle, where Diagne is believed to have lived most recently.
– Austin Sanders, Public Safety Reporter; Peggy O’Hare, San Antonio Express-News Reporter; and Tony Plohetski, Investigative Reporter
4:35 p.m.: Officials praise team after cops, EMS responded to shooting in 57 seconds
Officials said several factors helped the Austin Police Department respond within seconds to the mass shooting that killed two and injured 14 others. At a Monday news conference, Chief Lisa Davis highlighted a coordinated partnership between police, the Austin Fire Department and Austin-Travis County EMS that pairs officers with paramedics to quickly address life-threatening emergencies.
Austin police established the joint Counter Assault Strike Teams, known as CAST units, after a 2010 incident in which a 19-year-old gunman on the University of Texas campus fired several rounds from an AK-47 before turning the weapon on himself. The specially trained teams respond to active-shooter situations and other high-risk, violent incidents. Davis said one of the units is assigned every weekend to the downtown entertainment district to ensure a rapid first-responder presence in a critical situation.
“They sit in this very room every Friday, Saturday and Sunday night to address potential threat concerns from our entertainment areas,” Davis said at the news conference on the fourth floor of police headquarters. “Where there are large crowds, we are there and prepared.”
Austin Police Association President Michael Bullock said the joint teams make it possible for officers to escort paramedics into dangerous situations, helping injured people receive advanced medical treatment faster.
“We can take paramedics into active scenes because they know that we’re there to keep them safe and that means we can get advanced life-saving care to people who are injured a lot sooner,” he said.
EMS Chief Robert Luckritz said at a Sunday morning press conference that the partnership between Austin-Travis County EMS and the Austin Police Department has continued to evolve and become more refined over time, improving coordination and response in high-risk emergencies.
“There has been significant investment over the past three to four years in that partnership, including adding dedicated EMS resources to the entertainment district on the weekends, as well as supplemental paramedics that are embedded with the Austin Police Department,” he said.
Officials have also pointed to broader public safety reforms on Sixth Street, including a pair of post-pandemic public safety initiatives called “Safer Sixth Street” and “Downtown Area Command” for EMS, both of which brought a wide range of other public safety investments to the city’s entertainment districts downtown.
The Safer Sixth Street initiative was conceived in the wake of another mass shooting nearly five years ago on Sixth Street. In the early hours of June 12, 2021, a gunman opened fire in the 400 block of East Sixth Street, leaving one dead and 13 injured.
-Chaya Tong, City Hall Reporter and Alex Driggars, Transportation Reporter
4 p.m.: Memorial grows in front of Buford’s
Manuel Tevera stopped Monday afternoon to lay a bunch of white lilies at the impromptu memorial created on the corner in front of Buford’s.
The longtime Bull and Bowl cook was distraught over the loss of lives, and left the flowers as a tribute, an offering of “peace and light for their path.”
Manuel Tevera stopped Monday afternoon to lay a bunch of white lilies at the impromptu memorial created on the corner in front of Buford’s.
Matthew Odam
Tevera, who has lived in Austin for 22 years, said he feels a sense of community with his fellow hospitality workers, even if he does not know them personally. The events of early Sunday morning left him shaken and concerned for his safety.
“It’s something to have fear of and be frightened of because when they say it’s terrorism, you don’t know where, when or how this could happen,” Tevera said. “You don’t know when someone could walk in and end everything.”
-Matthew Odam, Restaurant Critic and Reporter
3:56 p.m.: South by Southwest says festival plans remain on track
Officials with the South by Southwest Conference and Festival said the festival remains on track for March 12-18 following the shooting.
“We are devastated by the tragedy,” a SXSW spokesperson said in a statement. “This is our home and we care about it deeply. Our thoughts are with everyone affected, and we’re grateful to first responders for their swift response.”
The annual film, music and technology festival draws hundreds of thousands of attendees to the city each spring and has long coordinated closely with law enforcement on safety planning. Organizers said those efforts are ongoing.
“Year round, SXSW works closely with local, state, and federal law enforcement and public safety agencies to plan for a safe SXSW,” the spokesperson said, adding that the organization will “continue to stay in close coordination with our public safety and city partners and will provide additional updates as they become available.”
-Ana Gutierrez, Trending and Dining Reporter
3:20 p.m.: ‘Our hearts are broken’: Buford’s issues statement
Buford’s, the bar where the mass shooting occurred Sunday, issued a statement Monday thanking law enforcement and expressing sympathy for those affected.
“No words can adequately express the sorrow we feel for those who lost loved ones or were injured,” the bar wrote on Instagram. “These were young people with their whole lives ahead of them, and our thoughts and prayers are with every family impacted.”
The statement also said the FBI offered grief counseling services to the Buford’s staff.
“We are committed to supporting our team and the broader community during this devastating time,” the statement continued.
-Katey Psencik, Breaking and Trending Editor
2:52 p.m.: UT students to host prayer walk honoring shooting victim
University of Texas Student Body President Hudson Thomas said on Instagram that he and student leaders would host a “prayer walk across campus” from 6 to 7 p.m. Wednesday to grieve together.
“When one of us experiences loss or deep sadness, it affects us all as a family,” he said. “The students at this institution have changed my life forever. May we come together to pray and to support one another.”
-Lily Kepner, Higher Education Reporter
2:20 p.m.: Shooting suspect previously lived in San Antonio
Ndiaga Diagne, 53, the man authorities have identified as the shooter, lived in a modest residential area in Northeast San Antonio until about a year ago, according to a neighbor.
The house is in the 4000 block of Indian Sunrise, a neighborhood of one-story wood-frame houses in a mixed industrial-residential part of the city. It is less than a mile east of Friendship Park in the city of Kirby.
The house where Diagne once lived is painted beige with white trim and has a small patch of lawn out front. Several houses on the same block appeared vacant.
On Monday, a folding chair was positioned outside the front door of Diagne’s former residence. On the chair was a Ruko security camera equipped with a speaker. When a reporter knocked on the door, a male voice said through the speaker, “Get off the property.”
A neighbor who lives across the street said Diagne moved out of the house about a year ago, and that the current occupants have no connection to him.
-Sig Christenson, San Antonio Express-News senior reporter
2:09 p.m.: UT president confirms student among those killed; other students injured
In a Monday email to campus, University of Texas President Jim Davis confirmed a “number of our students” were injured in the attack at Buford’s Sunday. He described the student who died, Savitha Shan, as “a child of loving parents. A loyal friend to many. A longhorn preparing to change the world.”
“It is devastating, and I know all of us are grieved by this horrible news,” he said. “And we will remember her.”
Davis said UT is boosting security and police patrols around campus. He also said UT has 24/7 confidential counseling and mental health support for students, and an employee assistance program to help support employees.
Davis said he has met with families of students injured and will continue to pray for them.
He also expressed his gratitude for the “compassion and strength” the UT community has shown in the wake of the shooting.
“Longhorns always look out for Longhorns. We lift each other up when we need it most. Now is one of those times,” Davis said. “I am confident that, together, we will find light through this darkness that presently surrounds us.”
-Lily Kepner, Higher Education Reporter
2 p.m.: Online reports indicate victims were college students
Officials have identified the two people killed in Sunday morning’s mass shooting on West Sixth Street as Savitha Shan, 21, and Ryder Harrington, 19. Police Chief Lisa Davis said in a Monday press conference that she did not know if Shan and Harrington attended any local colleges, but online reports indicate that Shan was a student at the University of Texas at Austin and Harrington was a student at Texas Tech University in Lubbock.
-Katey Psencik, Breaking and Trending Editor
1:50 p.m.: Officials say suspect legally purchased weapons used in attack
Austin officials said Monday that the suspect in Sunday’s mass shooting legally purchased the firearms used in the attack in 2017 in San Antonio.
Police Chief Lisa Davis said the weapons were obtained legally, though authorities did not provide additional details about how the suspect later acquired or maintained possession of the guns.
The FBI is working alongside Austin police as investigators continue to review evidence, analyze surveillance footage and interview more than 150 witnesses.
“The last 36 hours have been some of the most challenging in my career,” Davis said, describing the crime scene as “complex and very large.”
FBI Special Agent Alex Doran said investigators are reviewing the suspect’s background, movements, social media activity and personal contacts to better understand what led to the violence.
Officials said body-camera footage and additional details about the suspect, including criminal history, are expected to be released later this week as part of the standard review of the officer-involved shooting that ended the attack.
Authorities also confirmed the suspect had not previously been on Austin police’s radar.
Police executed search warrants Sunday at multiple locations connected to the suspect, including a residence in Del Valle, focusing on gathering evidence and determining where he lived and spent time.
Officials said the attack will not alter current security plans for South by Southwest, which is scheduled to begin later this month.
-Dante Motley, Breaking News Reporter
1:30 p.m.: Death toll will rise as additional victim to be taken off life support Monday
Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said the death toll would rise following Sunday’s mass shooting as an additional person would be taken off of life support Monday, bringing the death toll to four — three shooting victims and the alleged shooter.
Davis confirmed the identities of two killed — Savitha Shan and Ryder Harrington — but did not share the identity of the victim that would be taken off of life support.
Alex Doran, active special agent with the FBI’s San Antonio office, said in a Monday press conference that any declaration of the suspect’s motive in Sunday’s mass shooting would be “premature.”
Both Doran and Davis said the suspect, Ndiaga Diagne, was previously not on law enforcement’s radar. Investigators are looking through thousands of hours of video and interviewing more than 150 witnesses, police said.
-Katey Psencik, Breaking and Trending Editor
1:07 p.m.: Officials identify two killed in West 6th shooting
Officials have identified the two people killed in Sunday morning’s mass shooting on West Sixth Street as Savitha Shan and Ryder Harrington.
The suspect, Ndiaga Diagne, was shot and killed by police during the shooting. Fourteen others were injured.
-Katey Psencik, Breaking and Trending Editor
1 p.m.: Austin police, FBI provide mass shooting update
The Austin Police Department and FBI will hold a joint press conference at 1 p.m. Monday. Watch a live stream below.
-Katey Psencik, Breaking and Trending Editor
12:43 p.m.: Neighbors recount investigation at Del Valle apartment complex
John Santana, a resident in the Eastridge Apartments in Del Valle — the complex Diagne is believed to have lived in — said he was sitting in his kitchen Sunday morning when he heard law enforcement conducting a SWAT operation.
“I listened, ‘Hey, APD FBI,’ Santana told the American-Statesman. ‘There was nobody inside the apartment.’
Broken glass and a boarded-up patio door are seen at the home of Austin mass shooting suspect Ndiaga Diagne at the Eastridge Apartments in Del Valle on Monday, March 2, 2026.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
Santana said officials arrived around 9:45 a.m., and around 11:15 a.m., he reported hearing what they described as law enforcement breaking a window and the sound of officers pulling the door off its hinges.
At one point, Santana and his roommate were recording the incident from their balcony, which overlooked the unit Diagne is believed to have lived in. An officer asked them to return inside, notifying them that officials were conducting an FBI operation.
Broken glass and a boarded-up patio door are seen at the home of Austin mass shooting suspect Ndiaga Diagne at the Eastridge Apartments in Del Valle on Monday, March 2, 2026.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
Santana told the Statesman that he had not seen Diagne around the apartments and described the community as quiet and peaceful, with few law-enforcement-related disputes.
He reported being friends with his neighbors but never interacting with Diagne.
-Faith Bugenhagen, Breaking and Trending Reporter and Austin Sanders, Public Safety Reporter
11:38 a.m.: City Hall blood drive to support shooting victims
Austin City Council Member Zo Qadri, whose district includes downtown, announced a blood drive running from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday at Austin City Hall. The drive is open to walk-in donors only, and Qadri reminded potential donors to eat a full meal before donating and bring a photo ID to the drive.
Visit weareblood.org for requirements and recommendations for blood donors.
–Katey Psencik, Breaking and Trending Editor
11:15 a.m.: Suspect became lawful resident in 2006, naturalized in 2013
Diagne, a native of Senegal, came to the U.S. in March 2000, on a tourist visa, according to the Department of Homeland Security. He became a lawful permanent resident in June 2006 based on a marriage to a U.S. citizen and then naturalized as a U.S. citizen in April 2013, the agency said.
In 2022, he was arrested in Texas in connection to a vehicle collision. Aside from that, Diagne doesn’t appear to have a criminal history in the state.
-Austin Sanders, Public Safety Reporter
Bouquets of flowers are placed outside Buford’s on west 6th street in Downtown Austin, Texas on Monday, March 2, 2026. Three people are dead including a shooter and 14 others were injured in a mass shooting at Buford’s on Sunday, March 1, 2026.
Aaron E. Martinez/Austin American-Statesman
11:05 a.m.: Makeshift memorial, bullet impacts at Buford’s Monday
A makeshift memorial sat out front of Buford’s on Monday morning, bouquets and a heart-shaped figure marking the spot out front of where Sunday’s mass shooting occurred.
A mango-flavored white claw, empty water and Michelob ULTRA bottles littered the front steps of the now-blocked off, vacant bar. Law enforcement was not located outside of the scene.
Impacts from bullet holes were marked on buildings and trees along West Sixth Street and an orange-and-white traffic barricade blocked off the entrance to Buford’s.
A bullet impact is marked on the wall outside Kung Fu Saloon on west 6th street in Downtown Austin, Texas on Monday, March 2, 2026. Three people are dead including a shooter and 14 others were injured in a mass shooting at Buford’s on Sunday, March 1, 2026.
Aaron E. Martinez/Austin American-Statesman
‘Heartbroken’: Governor, Texas leaders respond to deadly West 6th Street mass shooting
The stretch of West Sixth Street where Buford’s stands remained closed for most of Sunday as officials investigated but was open to traffic Monday morning.
Authorities said the investigation remains active and that additional details, including the identities of the victims, will be released as they become available.
A bullet impact is marked on the wall outside Kung Fu Saloon on west 6th street in Downtown Austin, Texas on Monday, March 2, 2026. Three people are dead including a shooter and 14 others were injured in a mass shooting at Buford’s on Sunday, March 1, 2026.
Aaron E. Martinez/Austin American-Statesman
Photos: Aftermath of West 6th Street mass shooting
Anyone searching for family members or friends in connection with the shooting is asked to call the Austin Police Department’s Victim Services Unit at 512-974-5037.
Police also said anyone with photos, videos or other information is encouraged to submit them to investigators.
-Faith Bugenhagen, Breaking and Trending Reporter
