{"id":204117,"date":"2026-03-14T04:34:29","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T04:34:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/204117\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T04:34:29","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T04:34:29","slug":"what-we-know-about-the-gunman-victims-and-motive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/204117\/","title":{"rendered":"What we know about the gunman, victims and motive"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article was co-published with the Austin Current, a local nonprofit newsroom that provides Austinites with the information they need to navigate daily life. Subscribe<\/a> to the Current\u2019s newsletter for the latest news and updates from across Austin. <\/p>\n

A gunman opened fire outside a bar in Austin\u2019s West Sixth Street entertainment district shortly before 2 a.m. Sunday, killing three people and injuring 13 others, authorities said.<\/p>\n

Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said the suspected gunman drove a large SUV around the block several times before the attack. He then rolled down the windows and began firing a pistol, striking patrons at the bar. <\/p>\n

The gunman then parked, exited the vehicle and continued shooting with a rifle, police said.<\/p>\n

Paramedics and police arrived within a minute after the first 911 call, Davis said. Officers fatally shot the suspected gunman at the scene.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what we know so far. <\/p>\n

Who were the victims?<\/p>\n

Authorities identified the victims as 30-year-old Jorge Pederson, 21-year-old Saditha Shan and 19-year-old Ryder Harrington, a student at Texas Tech University.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is unfair, to say the least, that my little brother was only given 19 years on this earth,\u201d his brother, Reed Harrington, wrote on Facebook.<\/a> \u201cWatching the man he had become, and seeing all the lives he touched, leaves me certain that this world was robbed of a great future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shan and Harrington were killed on Sunday during the shooting, and Pederson died from his injuries on Monday. Three people injured during the shooting were in critical condition Monday, Davis said during a news conference, including one person who was expected to be taken off life support. On Tuesday, that person was confirmed to be Pederson.<\/p>\n

Who was the gunman?<\/p>\n

Austin police identified the gunman as Ndiaga Diagne, a 53-year-old man originally from Senegal.<\/p>\n

The Department of Homeland Security said<\/a> Diagne entered the United States on a tourist visa in 2000, became a lawful permanent resident in 2006 after marrying a U.S. citizen and became a naturalized citizen in 2013.<\/p>\n

In 2017, Diagne legally purchased the guns he used in the shooting in San Antonio, Davis said.<\/p>\n

Diagne was arrested in 2022 on a misdemeanor charge of \u201ccollision with vehicle damage,\u201d typically issued when a driver leaves the scene of a crash.<\/p>\n

The New York Post reported Diagne was arrested for \u201cillegal vending\u201d in New York City in 2001. Citing unnamed sources, the tabloid said he was arrested in New York three other times between 2008 and 2016, but those records are sealed. The Post did not report on whether he was convicted of any crimes.<\/p>\n

Authorities said they expect to release more information on Diagne\u2019s criminal history on Thursday as well as body camera footage and other details related to the officer-involved shooting that led to Diagne\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

What was the motive?<\/p>\n

Investigators have not announced a motive. However, Alex Doran, acting special agent in charge of FBI San Antonio, said there were indicators that the shooting could be related to terrorism.<\/p>\n

Diagne wore a sweatshirt emblazoned with the words \u201cProperty of Allah\u201d and a shirt with a design of the Iranian flag, according to the Associated Press. The shooting came hours after the United States and Israel carried out airstrikes in Iran.<\/p>\n

What are elected officials saying?<\/p>\n

Reactions from Texas politicians have largely fallen along partisan lines. Democrats are calling for stricter gun laws, while some Republicans have focused on the gunman\u2019s immigration history.<\/p>\n

After Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico called for proposals such as universal background checks, red flag laws and closing the gun show loopholes that allow for the private sales of firearms at gunshows, Gov. Greg Abbott said<\/a> the problem wasn\u2019t gun laws but with \u201cunvetted\u201d immigration.<\/p>\n

Disclosure: Facebook and Texas Tech University have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune\u2019s journalism. Find a complete\u00a0list of them here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This article was co-published with the Austin Current, a local nonprofit newsroom that provides Austinites with the information…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204118,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,2314,14519,287,293],"class_list":{"0":"post-204117","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-criminal-justice","12":"tag-mass-shootings","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-texas-legislature"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204117","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=204117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}