Austin police have identified the victims killed in a shooting at a downtown bar over the weekend.
The Austin Police Department named two of the victims in the attack at Buford’s on Sixth Street early Sunday. Three people died that morning, including the gunman, while a fourth person succumbed to his injuries after removal from life support on Monday.
Authorities identified 21-year-old Savitha Shan, a University of Texas at Austin senior and dual-degree honors student active in campus groups including the Indian Students Association executive board, as one victim. UT Austin President Jim Davis called Shan “a child of loving parents, a loyal friend to many and a Longhorn preparing to change the world.” Longhorn assistant professor Russ Finney posted on X that Shan was “one of our superstar students at UT Austin McCombs School of Business,” set to begin a career at a large professional services firm.
Police Chief Lisa Davis named 19-year-old Ryder Harrington, a Texas Tech student, as a second person killed by the gunman. His older brother, Reed Harrington, described his sibling’s wit, heart, and stubbornness in a Facebook post, adding that he was “the best brother I could ever ask for.”
“It is unfair, to say the least, that my little brother was only given 19 years on this earth. Watching the man he had become, and seeing all the lives he touched, leaves me certain that this world was robbed of a great future,” Reed Harrington wrote.
Kelson Li was a witness to the immediate aftermath of the March 1 shooting. He told Fox 7 Austin that his coworker, 30-year-old Jorge Pederson, who was critically injured in the shooting, died on Monday night after reportedly being taken off life support. Pederson had recently moved to Austin from Minnesota.
“He literally moved here two weeks ago … just trying to go out and experience Austin and meet people,” Li said, per Fox 7.
Pederson was described as a “beloved Minnesotan fighter” by Med City Fighting Championships, according to a social media post.
The incident began around 1:40 a.m. when officers responded to reports of a man firing at Buford’s bar. Police confronted the gunman and “returned fire, killing the suspect,” Davis said on Sunday. The shooter, identified as 53-year-old Ndiaga Diagne, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Senegal living in Pflugerville, wore a sweatshirt reading “Property of Allah” over a T-shirt with an Iranian flag, per officials. Authorities described potential terrorism ties.
The shooting took place just one day after U.S. and Israeli forces launched a joint military operation, known in the U.S. as Operation Epic Fury, against the nation of Iran, eliminating top leaders of the country’s regime, as reported on by The Dallas Express.
Davis said on Monday that Diagne used two guns that were legally purchased in 2017. He drove by the bar, fired a pistol through a window without entering, parked nearby, and exited with a rifle. An explosives team examined his vehicle after finding suspicious items, but discovered no bombs. The gunman was unknown to Austin police or the FBI.
Fourteen people were wounded, with two remaining in critical condition as of Monday. Investigators are reviewing extensive physical and digital evidence in the early stages of the probe. Police urged witnesses to submit photos or videos.
