Years before Ndiaga Diagne was accused of a mass shooting outside a crowded Texas bar, he was accused of making a string of violent threats against his wife, an auto shop employee, and even himself.
Police shot and killed Diagne minutes after he opened fire wearing a “Property of Allah” sweatshirt, killing three people. The FBI is investigating whether his attack had a nexus to terrorism.
Records obtained by Scripps News show authorities responded to numerous complaints about threats made by Diagne in the years leading up to the mass shooting. None of the encounters resulted in arrest or criminal charges.
In 2020, a Bexar county sheriff’s report shows Diagne’s then-wife reported he grabbed her left arm and “yanked” her out of his vehicle as she attempted to hug their child, and later shoved her to the ground. She told police he “threatened to ‘kill her in the city’ and also beat her with the steering wheel locking tool.” After Diagne left, his wife called police. According to the report, she told a deputy she did not want to pursue charges.
In September 2022, court records show the couple’s marriage ended in divorce. A decree of divorce found Diagne “has a history or pattern of committing family violence.”
Weeks later, authorities in Bexar county received a call that Diagne had “contacted a crisis center in New York and made a threat to harm himself.” Deputies went to the address listed on Diagne’s cell phone bill, but learned he no longer lived there.
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It’s unclear which law enforcement agency eventually made contact with Diagne, but when Austin police chief Lisa Davis was asked about a welfare check at a press conference last week, she indicated it involved authorities in New York, and said, “I don’t know that they had enough to do a commitment for him… what I’m hearing is they gave him resources to call, that kind of thing.”
In August 2023, police in Pflugerville, Texas received a call from a worker at an auto repair shop reporting Diagne “had a gun and threatened him with it.” Police conducted a “high-risk stop” of Diagne’s Cadillac Escalade. When they searched his vehicle, they did not find a firearm, but found a gray “wheel lock” in the car.
After police reviewed surveillance video of the argument between Diagne and the auto repair staffer over the work done on the suspect’s car, they determined the employee’s demeanor “was not indicative of someone in fear of a weapon,” and did not pursue charges.
New allegation emerges after shooting
After Diagne’s photo was shown on the news after the mass shooting, attorneys for a Texas woman said she came to a startling realization: the killer was the same man who attacked her months ago at work.
In a lawsuit filed this week, 65-year-old Lillian Mendoza Brady alleged Diagne “physically assaulted” her after he had been on a “sanctioned” prayer break in a common area at their shared workplace, a factory for the automaker Tesla.
Brady’s attorneys claimed the company “withheld Diagne’s identity from her in the weeks following the attack” and she only learned his name after the shooting.
Tesla did not respond to an inquiry from Scripps News about the allegations, or to confirm whether Diagne worked there. Austin Police would not comment on Diagne’s employment history.
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