Austin, TX (ABC News)- The FBI has announced that the FBI’s Joint terrorism Task Force is joining the investigation into the shooting at a bar in Austin that left 3 people dead including the gunman, and several wounded as a potential act of terrorism. Alex Doran, acting special agent in charge of FBI San Antonio, said that there were “indicators” of a “potential nexus to terrorism.”
Two people were killed and more than a dozen others were injured in a mass shooting at an Austin bar early on Sunday, police said, adding that officers had also fatally shot a suspect.
Three Austin Police Department officers encountered a suspect armed with a gun as they entered Buford’s Bar just before 2 a.m. local time, police said during a press conference on Sunday. The officers returned fire, fatally shooting the man, police said.
Austin police chief Lisa Davis said a large SUV drove around the block several times prior to the shooting. She said the suspected gunman then rolled down his windows and started shooting out of his car with a pistol, striking several patrons at the bar. He then parked and came out of the SUV with a rifle and continued shooting indiscriminately. Officers and paramedics took a minute to arrive from Sixth Street, Austin’s well known entertainment district, and confronted the gunman killing him.
“I’m very thankful for the speed with which our public safety officials responded,” Mayor Kirk Watson said, adding that there wasn’t “any question that it saved lives.”
