Austin 6th Street shooting: Divorce filings claim suspect's 'cruel treatment' against ex-wife
AUSTIN, Texas - A 2022 divorce filing in Bexar County is giving more details about the man accused of killing three people and injuring 13 others in a shooting at a downtown Austin bar over the weekend.
The filing accuses shooting suspect Ndiaga Diagne of "cruel treatment" towards his ex-wife, with the divorce resulting in him losing custody of his two children.
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Diagne's ex-wife filed for divorce in March 2022, almost ten years after the couple had married. The filing shows that the couple had not been living together since October 2019.
Under grounds for divorce, his ex-wife claimed that Diagne was guilty of "cruel treatment toward [her] of a nature that renders further living together insupportable."
In a response letter filed with the court, Diagne said he "totally disagree[d] and quite frankly [felt] insulted by the many false statements in the filing" and that he "categorically reject[s] her many lies."
"Why I am brought here is incomprehensible, since she has taken the kids out of their school without my consent, as of now I have no idea where they are, she doesn't allow me to talk to them on the phone, let alone see them," said Diagne in his letter.
At the bottom of the letter, Diagne gives an address in Pflugerville on Kickapoo Cavern Drive, which was searched by law enforcement on Sunday. At the scene, ATF agents could be seen carrying out boxes of what appeared to be evidence.
In September 2022, the court entered a default judgment for the divorce, giving sole custody to the ex-wife and supervised visits to Diagne after he failed to appear for a scheduled hearing.
Deadly Austin 6th Street shooting
The backstory:
Austin 6th Street shooting: Third victim identified
Late Monday night, Austin police confirmed a third victim, 30-year-old Jorge Pederson died. He was taken off life support.
Three people, including the gunman, were killed, and 14 others were wounded in a mass shooting outside a bar in Austin's bustling Sixth Street entertainment district early Sunday morning that authorities said may have ties to terrorism.
A third victim later died after being taken off life support. Two others remained critically injured as of Monday.
It began with a call to police around 1:40 a.m. about a man shooting at Buford's. When police arrived at the scene, they confronted a man with a gun and "returned fire, killing the suspect," said Austin police chief Lisa Davis Sunday.
The gunman was identified as Diagne, a naturalized US citizen born in Senegal who lived in Pflugerville. He was reportedly caught in images wearing a sweatshirt that read "Property of Allah" and had been wearing a T-shirt underneath with an Iranian flag on it.
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Davis said that the gunman had two weapons during the shooting, but never entered the bar; instead he drove by, fired outside the window with a pistol, then parked his vehicle nearby and got out with a rifle.
Davis said an explosives team was called in to evaluate the gunman's vehicle after investigators found concerning items inside. No bombs were found, however.
Davis added during a Monday press conference that the guns used in the shooting were legally purchased in 2017. The gunman was also not on APD or the FBI's radar, according to law enforcement.
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Davis and the FBI say that it is still in the early hours of the investigation and that authorities are pouring over massive amounts of physical and digital evidence.
"We are pouring through thousands of hours of video. We have massive amounts of both digital and physical evidence. And this is an around-the-clock 24-hour investigation at this point. And any declarations on what led to that motive would be premature," said Alex Doran, FBI acting special agent in charge.
Chief Davis says more information, including body camera footage and details about the suspect’s criminal history, is expected to be released Thursday.
The Source: Information in this report comes from Bexar County court documents obtained by FOX 7 Austin's Meredith Aldis and previous reporting by FOX 7 Austin.