Tesla Inc.<\/a>, accusing her employer of failing to provide a safe work environment and of withholding Diagne\u2019s name as she pursued charges.<\/p>\nArticle continues below this ad<\/p>\n
She says she \u201cwasn\u2019t really looking for a lawsuit\u201d against Tesla but thought it should have identified Diagne sooner. Now she wonders if the three people killed and 14 wounded that morning instead would have made it home safely if the Austin automaker had\u00a0provided his identity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this needs to be brought out that this individual probably wouldn\u2019t have done this tragedy that he did on Sunday if something would have been done by Tesla,\u201d Brady said in an interview later that week.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With her pastor at her side and tears in her eyes, she offered condolences to the victims and their loved ones.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u201cI\u2019m looking at these families that got injured because Tesla held back the information,\u201d Brady said. \u201cIf they were to release the name or arrest him on the spot\u00a0\u2014 because we had deputies outside\u00a0\u2014 maybe all this could have been avoided. Or at least be on their radar. Something would have happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alleged assault<\/p>\n
Brady started working at Tesla in January 2023, seeking out the\u00a0automaker after her former coworkers at Amazon informed her that Tesla was hiring and could offer more lucrative pay.<\/p>\n
She was hired and started in a role with the cell department, producing parts of the batteries Tesla uses. Later, she was moved with dozens of others to the general assembly area, where she holds a role as a process assistant.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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As she prepared for work Dec. 4, she was expecting a typical workday.<\/p>\n
Her days start early. She usually leaves home in\u00a0Buda about 3:40 a.m. and goes through security upon arriving at the factory east of Austin. That day, she ate breakfast in her car and took a brief nap, then checked on her German Shepherd back home with her Ring camera.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Finally, about a quarter to 6 a.m., Brady said, she started to walk into the building.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI take the little path that I normally take every day. See the forklift guys there like every day. And this individual was praying on the floor, and I stopped,\u201d she said. \u201cI had my work bag on one arm, and my lunch bag in the other arm.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u201cI stopped and I was gonna walk around, and he stood up and just pushed me \u2026 just threw me, and I went flying backwards and landed on my tailbone, my back,\u201d Brady said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"As\u00a0images]()
<\/p>\n
As\u00a0images of\u00a0the man later identified as\u00a0Ndiaga Diagne started circulating in news media March 1, Lillian Brady emailed the detective she\u2019d been working with for months. Her subject line: \u201cThat\u2019s him!!\u201d<\/p>\n
Austin Police Department<\/p>\n
One of the men on a forklift came running to help her up. Others followed. Sensing the witnesses were upset, Brady said, she instructed them not to do anything else.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Upon arriving at her workstation, Brady told her supervisor what had happened and security was called. After guiding security personnel to the site of the incident, Brady said she went back to her workstation while they reviewed security camera footage. She sent an email informing security that she wanted to file charges.<\/p>\n
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By then her hip and back were \u201cswelling up,\u201d she said, and Tesla sent her to a medical center in Manor.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt my age, it\u2019s very hard to bounce back,\u201d said Brady, who was then 65. The day after the incident, it took her three hours to get out of bed. Her injuries required a visit to another urgent care center in Kyle.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brady also\u00a0went to the Manor Police Department to report the incident, she said, and was later directed to the Travis County Sheriff\u2019s Office.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Diagne\u2019s version<\/p>\n
An account of the incident\u00a0Diagne gave to one of his neighbors differs from Brady\u2019s.<\/p>\n
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According to the neighbor, who requested anonymity because he works for the federal government,\u00a0Diagne expressed frustration over his access to a designated prayer room at the factory.<\/p>\n
He told his neighbor he was a devout Muslim and wanted to pray multiple times throughout his shift. Praying five times per day is a pillar of Islam. But that created conflict with management at Tesla.<\/p>\n
The room where Diagne said he believed he could pray was a 15 minute walk from his work area, he said, which would require missing too much of his shift. So,\u00a0Diagne told his neighbor, he began laying out his prayer mat by his work area.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Attorney]()
<\/p>\n
Attorney Alex Hilliard displays an email sent by Tesla employee Lillian Brady to Tesla security reporting her allegation that co-worker Ndiaga Diagne assaulted her at Tesla\u2019s Gigafactory Texas on Dec. 4, 2025, months before he carried out the mass shooting at Buford\u2019s Backyard Beer Garden on West Sixth Street. The email is shown in Austin on Friday, March 6, 2026.<\/p>\n
Jay Janner\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n
At one point, Diagne told his neighbor, his supervisor stepped on the mat while explaining to Diagne that he could not have it out on the factory floor. Diagne responded by \u201cgently pushing\u201d the supervisor, the neighbor recounted being told, to get her off of the mat.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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The altercation resulted in Diagne being fired from his job at Tesla, he told his\u00a0neighbor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brady, though, said she is not a manager and denied having stepped on Diagne\u2019s prayer mat.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Asked if she was confident that Tesla\u2019s security video would corroborate her account, Brady replied, \u201cI believe so.\u201d Her attorneys have been seeking access to it for weeks.<\/p>\n
But, she said, she does not want to see it herself.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u201cI see it enough in my mind every day,\u201d Brady said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tesla\u2019s response<\/p>\n
From the day of the incident until Jan. 23, Brady said, she was on leave from Tesla, receiving \u201cno support\u201d from the company. Her workers\u2019 compensation claim was denied, according to an email from a workplace health specialist at Tesla. Brady said the company had cited a pre-existing condition.<\/p>\n
Shortly after the incident, she received an invitation from LaDonna Wilder, a senior human resources partner at Tesla, requesting a Dec. 9 virtual meeting to discuss Brady\u2019s allegations. Over the course of two calls with Wilder and other interactions with Tesla\u2019s human resources department, Brady said, she was not provided the name of her alleged assailant. \u00a0<\/p>\n
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Upon her return to Tesla in late January, she heard he had been fired.<\/p>\n
Though back at work, Brady continued physical therapy sessions\u00a0\u2014 and continued seeking Diagne\u2019s identity so she could bring charges.<\/p>\n
In late December and early January, she asked the sheriff\u2019s office for updates on the case but there wasn\u2019t much to report, the department replied. On Jan. 9, a detective informed Brady the office had not yet received items it sought through a court order served to Tesla the previous week.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe court order had to be physically mailed to an office in Dallas, TX, which sadly it is taking a while to go through the US Postal service,\u201d the detective wrote. \u201cI am hoping they will return the requested items to me electronically and not through the US Postal Service. Sadly, without any identifying information for the suspect being known, we have to wait for Tesla to provide it to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Finally, on Feb. 25\u00a0\u2014 three days before the shooting on West Sixth Street\u00a0\u2014 Garrison confirmed that he had the name of the assailant and had obtained video of the incident from Tesla.<\/p>\n
\u201cI plan to reach out to the other employee\u00a0for a statement sometime tomorrow or early next week,\u201d he told Brady in an email, apparently referring to\u00a0Diagne.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In her reply, she requested the video and asked for the name of the employee. Garrison apologized, saying the materials couldn\u2019t be provided due to the ongoing investigation.<\/p>\n
Tesla did not respond to requests for comment on its handling of the incident, Brady\u2019s requests and the investigation.<\/p>\n
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![\"An\u00a0Austin]()
<\/p>\n
An\u00a0Austin police officer at\u00a0the scene of\u00a0a\u00a0mass shooting that occurred early on\u00a0March 1 on\u00a0West Sixth Street in\u00a0downtown Austin.<\/p>\n
Jay Janner\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n
The sheriff\u2019s office declined to comment, citing Brady\u2019s civil litigation. It confirmed that the investigation into Brady\u2019s alleged assault was closed by exception because the suspect is deceased. The Austin American-Statesman has reviewed correspondence between Brady and detectives on her case, her emails to Tesla and other text messages. The newspaper has filed a request with the sheriff\u2019s office and Manor police for all records and communications related to the investigation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hilliard Law, which is representing Brady, said it is still working with Tesla attorneys to obtain the security video footage of the Dec. 4 incident. The firm said it has been contacted by victims and families wishing to understand whether the shooting was preventable if Tesla had been forthcoming.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe already know the shooter violently assaulted a Tesla employee months before the Sixth Street shooting and Tesla had the shooter\u2019s name and information about that earlier attack\u00a0\u2014 why they chose not to act or warn law enforcement raises very serious questions the public deserves an answer to,\u201d said Bob Hilliard, one of\u00a0Brady\u2019s attorneys.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Brady put it this way: \u201cHe could have been behind bars. Maybe got scared, run away. Moved out of town.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the shooting<\/p>\n
After the shooting, she received a text message from an FBI agent who wanted to talk about her alleged assault at Gigafactory Texas. She returned the call Monday morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n
By that afternoon, while she was at work, Brady said she was directed to a conference room where she was put on the phone with two Tesla lawyers. They told her she wasn\u2019t required to talk to the FBI and that meeting with the agents would be on a voluntary basis. Brady said it felt like they were \u201ckind of trying to intimidate me not to talk to them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u201cBut they didn\u2019t know that I had talked to the other agents,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t mind talking to the agents, giving them the facts. Whatever it takes to help out with the case.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
When she spoke that day with the FBI agents on site at Tesla, she said, she detailed the alleged December incident for them.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the FBI in San Antonio declined to comment on the agency\u2019s interactions with Tesla or Brady.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs this is an active investigation, we are unable to provide additional information at this time,\u201d said Carmen\u00a0Portillo, the spokesperson.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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![\"The]()
<\/p>\n
The Rev. Billy Cummings hugs Tesla employee Lillian Brady after she spoke publicly in Austin on Friday, March 6, 2026, about her allegation that co-worker Ndiaga Diagne assaulted her at Tesla\u2019s Gigafactory Texas on Dec. 4, 2025, months before he carried out the mass shooting at Buford\u2019s Backyard Beer Garden on West Sixth Street.<\/p>\n
Jay Janner\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n
Reflecting on the lawsuit, Brady referenced her faith and the victims of the shooting.<\/p>\n
\u201cI prayed about it a lot, and I heard God\u2019s voice a lot, and I asked for guidance on this, and I\u2019m supposed to be a vessel of hope for these families,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And, even after filing suit against Tesla, she expressed deep enjoyment in her work, which she said was \u201celectrifying.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u201cI like my job. If I didn\u2019t like my job, I would have been gone a long time ago,\u201d Brady said. \u201cI have good references, I have good work ethics \u2026 I enjoy the co-workers here. I have friends here.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
But, she added, \u201cI don\u2019t like what happened. I don\u2019t like how Tesla handled it for being a very huge corporation. It\u2019s unethical; it\u2019s totally unethical what happened.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tesla employee Lillian Brady speaks in Austin on Friday, March 6, 2026, about her allegation that co-worker Ndiaga…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":{"0":"post-215588","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"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215588","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=215588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}