Student of Indian descent killed in US shooting considered reaction to Iran war
New York: The fallout from the distant Iran war has claimed the life of a student of Indian descent in Texas, who was killed along with another student by a man wearing a symbol of Iran who opened fire outside a popular venue.
Officials identified Savitha Shan on Monday as one of the two dead in the shooting early Sunday morning in Austin that also injured 14 others.
The shooter was identified as an immigrant from Senegal, who was wearing a T-shirt with the Iranian flag and a shirt with “Property of Allah” written on it, officials said.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Acting Special Agent Alex Doran said there were signs that the 53-year-old shooter, Ndiaga Diagne, had a “nexus to terrorism”, which they were following up on.
Law enforcement across the US has been put on high alert because of fears of terrorism after the US and Israel began bombing Iran on Saturday.
FBI Director Kash Patel wrote on X that he had “instructed our Counterterrorism and intelligence teams to be on high alert”.
University of Texas President Jim Davis confirmed Shan’s death in an email to the campus community, saying that she was a student “preparing to change the world”.
He described her as “a child of loving parents” and “a loyal friend to many”.
“All of us are grieved by this horrible news, and we will remember her”, he said.
The university’s radio station, KUT, said that according to a friend, she was 21 years old and had grown up in Austin.
On LinkedIn, Shan posted that she is pursuing a dual bachelor’s degree in economics and management information systems at the University of Texas at Austin, with graduation expected this year.
She wrote that she was a volunteer with the Austin Tamil Sangam.
She had also started Sunflakestickers, an e-commrce business selling stickers.
She said she had been an intern with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and Staples, a giant office supplies retailer.
Describing the shooting, Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said early Sunday morning, Diagne parked his car outside a beer garden and shot at people on its patio with a pistol.
He then got out of the car and began firing a rifle at people walking by before he was killed by police, she said.