Three dead, 14 injured after shooting in Austin, Texas; FBI probes possible terror link – World

At least three people were killed and 14 injured after a mass shooting at a bar in Austin, Texas, early Sunday, police said.

The suspect died in an exchange of gunfire with law enforcement at the scene, police said, adding that 14 people were in the hospital, three of whom were in critical condition.

The man suspected in the shooting had a history of mental health problems, authorities said, as the FBI investigated a possible link to terrorism.

Law enforcement officials said the suspect had a history of mental health problems, according to an internal update from the National Counterterrorism Center reviewed by Reuters.

A law enforcement official said Reuters that the shooter was wearing a T-shirt with the Iranian flag and IRAN written in green, white and red on the front.

Authorities are investigating whether the suspect was motivated by the joint US-Israeli attack on Iran, the official said. Reuters.

The shooter was identified as Ndiaga Diagne, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Senegal, according to the Counterterrorism Center update.

Law enforcement agencies have not identified a specific motive. Alex Doran, acting special agent in charge of the FBI’s San Antonio field office, told reporters Sunday: “There were indicators on the subject, and in his vehicle, that indicate a potential nexus to terrorism.”

The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force is working with the Austin Police Department on the investigation, which includes personnel from the federal agency’s evidence response and digital forensic teams, Doran said at Sunday’s news conference.

US President Donald Trump has been briefed on the shooting, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a social media post on Sunday.

The mass shooting occurred outside Buford’s, a popular bar on Austin’s stretch of West 6th Street known as the heart of the city’s music and nightlife district, and for its food trucks, according to local media reports.

Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis told reporters that the shooter drove a pickup truck several times around the block where the bar is located. At one point, the shooter turned on his emergency lights, rolled down his window and used a gun to shoot patrons on Buford’s patio and in front of the bar, Davis said. The shooter then drove west, parked the vehicle, got out and began shooting at people passing by, he said.

Police officers shot and killed the man at a nearby intersection, Davis said. Police and emergency services were already in the area because of the crowds that tend to gather there on weekends, Davis said. The speed of the response saved several lives, he said.

The incident marked the 56th mass shooting in the United States this year and the deadliest so far, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as an incident in which at least four people, not including the shooter, are injured or killed by gunfire.

The United States had 407 mass shootings last year, according to archival data.