{"id":185786,"date":"2026-03-01T17:56:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T17:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/185786\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T17:56:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T17:56:12","slug":"austin-mass-shooter-possibly-motivated-by-iran-attacks-quran-found-in-car-as-fbi-eyes-terrorism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/185786\/","title":{"rendered":"Austin mass shooter possibly motivated by Iran attacks, Quran found in car as FBI eyes terrorism"},"content":{"rendered":"

The man who killed two people and wounded 14 others at a packed Austin bar<\/a> was a former New York City resident possibly motivated by the US attacks on Iran, law-enforcement sources told The Post.<\/p>\n

The Texas shooter has been identified as Ndiaga Diagne, 53, a US citizen originally from Senegal who was naturalized in 2013 and applied for asylum in 2016.<\/p>\n

Diagne had a Quran in his car and clothing described as Islamic garb when he opened fire on Buford\u2019s Backyard Beer Garden near the University of Texas-Austin campus, according to sources familiar with the investigation.<\/p>\n

The Austin Police Department and the FBI investigate a shooting at Buford\u2019s on 6th Street. AP<\/p>\n

The gunman killed two people and wounded 14 others. Instagram \/ Bufords Austin<\/p>\n

The gunman had a history of arrests in New York City and Texas. He is believed to have lived in the Big Apple for years, arriving in 2000 and then racking up a string of arrests between 2001 to 2016, sources said. <\/p>\n

He was arrested in 2001 for illegal vending. His other three city busts are sealed, sources said.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously it\u2019s still way too early in the process to determine the exact motivation but there were indicators on the subject and in his vehicle that indicate potential nexus to terrorism,\u201d said Alex Doran, acting Special Agent in charge of the FBI\u2019s San Antonio office, to reporters.<\/p>\n

The attack happened about 2 a.m. \u2014 closing time for the popular nightspot \u2014 as hundreds of people were leaving to head home.<\/p>\n

Diagne\u2019s large SUV was spotted traveling around the block several times before he stopped in front of the bar and began shooting out of his front window with a pistol, hitting patrons on the front patio, according to Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis.<\/p>\n

He then parked his car, got out and began shooting at people walking by on the street, the chief said.<\/p>\n

The FBI is investigating the shooting as a possible ideologically motivated act of terrorism, the sources said. AP<\/p>\n

Police confronted the shooter within less than a minute of the first gunshot at an intersection on 6th Street and shot him, cops said.<\/p>\n

Two victims and the shooter died at the scene. First responders rushed 14 other patients to nearby hospitals, three of whom were in critical condition.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur hearts go out to the people that are victims of this and I want to reiterate my thanks to our public safety officers and officials that so rapidly were on the scene, they definitely saved lives,\u201d Austin Mayor Kirk Watson said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The man who killed two people and wounded 14 others at a packed Austin bar was a former…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185787,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,31231,14519,27,734],"class_list":{"0":"post-185786","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-austin","9":"tag-austin-headlines","10":"tag-austin-news","11":"tag-iran","12":"tag-mass-shootings","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}