Investigators are looking into whether a man who killed two people and injured a dozen more outside a bar in Austin, Texas, over the weekend was motivated by the war in Iran, officials said Monday.
The suspect, Ndiaga Diagne, 53, a naturalized American citizen originally from Senegal, was killed by police officers after the attack in the early hours of Sunday. He was wearing a sweatshirt that said “Property of Allah,” and a T-shirt emblazoned with an Iranian flag, officials said.
Lisa Davis, Austin’s police chief, described the clothing as “indicators” and said her department had called in federal law enforcement for help understanding the motive for the shooting. The attack came around 26 hours after the United States and Israel began military strikes against Iran on Saturday.
On Sunday, Alex Doran, acting special agent in charge of the F.B.I.’s San Antonio division, called the Austin shooting “potentially an act of terrorism.” But on Monday, Mr. Doran said that Mr. Diagne was “not previously on our radar” and that assigning a motive would be premature.
The two people killed were identified by the authorities as Savitha Shan and Ryder Harrington. A third victim is expected to be taken off life support, Chief Davis said.
The attack has fed rising anti-Muslim sentiment in Texas, with several conservative politicians calling for curtailed legal immigration. On Sunday, Ken Paxton, the attorney general of Texas who is in the middle of a bruising Republican primary for a Senate seat, reposted a call on social media for “no more Islamic immigration.”
The shooting took place in the early hours of Sunday outside Buford’s Backyard Beer Garden in an entertainment district popular with college students, around eight blocks from the Texas Capitol building.
The suspect drove several times around the block in a large S.U.V., then put on his hazard lights, rolled down the window and used a handgun to shoot patrons of the bar on the patio and people in front of the bar, according to Chief Davis.
A dispatcher received a call at 1:58 a.m. about the shooting, and officers reached the scene within less than a minute, Chief Davis told reporters on Sunday. “That saved multiple lives,” she said.
The suspect drove to a nearby dead-end street, parked, emerged from his car with a rifle and began shooting pedestrians. He walked back toward Buford’s and was shot and killed by officers, the authorities said.
Both weapons used in the attack were legally purchased in San Antonio in 2017, Chief Davis said.
Mr. Diagne lived in New York after arriving from Senegal and worked there as a taxi driver, according to court documents involving a collision with a pedestrian in 2017.
Kitty Bennett contributed research.
Thomas Fuller, a Page One Correspondent for The Times, writes and rewrites stories for the front page.
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