A gunman wearing clothes with an Iranian flag design shot and killed two people and wounded 14 early Sunday at an Austin bar, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. The FBI is investigating the shooting, which happened a day after the U.S. and Israel launched an attack on Iran, as a potential terrorism act. Nathan Comeaux witnessed and recorded the final moments of the attack.
Police in Austin shot and killed the gunman, who used both a pistol and a rifle to carry out the attack, police said.
The shooting happened outside Buford’s Backyard Beer Garden just before 2 a.m. along Sixth Street, a popular entertainment area in the Texas capitol a few miles from the University of Texas at Austin.
The gunman was identified as Ndiaga Diagne, 53, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.
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Authorities haven’t provided a clear motive for the attacks but found “indicators” on the gunman and in his vehicle leading them to look into the possibility of terrorism, said Alex Doran, the acting agent in charge of the FBI’s San Antonio office.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott warned that the state would respond aggressively to anyone trying to “use the current conflict in the Middle East to threaten Texas.”
University of Texas at Austin President Jim Davis said on social media that some of those affected included “members of our Longhorn family.”