By P.J. Huffstutter
CHICAGO, March 1 (Reuters) - The FBI said it was examining "indicators" that suggest a possible terrorism link to a mass shooting early on Sunday in Austin, Texas, in which police said at least three people were killed and 14 injured.
The male suspect was killed in an exchange of fire with police at the scene, police said. Two other people were killed and 14 people were hospitalized, with three of them in critical condition, police said.
Law enforcement officials have not released
the name of the shooter or identified a specific motive. Alex Doran, acting special agent in charge of the FBI's San Antonio field office, told reporters on Sunday, "There were indicators on the subject, and in his vehicle, that indicate a potential nexus to terrorism."
The FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force is working with the Austin Police Department on the investigation, which includes staff from the federal agency's evidence response and digital forensic teams, Doran said in Sunday's press conference.
President Donald Trump has been briefed on the shooting, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a post on social media on Sunday.
The mass shooting happened outside Buford's, a popular bar in the West 6th Street stretch of Austin — known as the heart of the city's music and nightlife area, and for its food trucks, according to local media reports.
Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis told reporters the shooter drove an SUV multiple times around the block where the bar is located. At one point, the shooter turned on his hazard lights, rolled down the window and used a pistol to shoot patrons on Buford's patio and in front of the bar, Davis said. The shooter then drove west, parked the vehicle and got out, and started firing at people who were walking by, she said.
Police officers fatally shot the man at a nearby intersection, Davis said.
Law enforcement and emergency services were already in the area because of crowds that tend to gather there on weekends, Davis said. The speed of response saved multiple lives, she said.
The incident marked the 56th U.S. mass shooting this year and the one with the most victims so far, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as an incident in which at least four people, not including the shooter, are injured or killed by gunfire.
The U.S. had 407 mass shootings last year, according to archive data.
(Reporting by P.J. Huffstutter in Chicago and Federica Mileo in Barcelona; Editing by Sergio Non, Paul Simao and Lisa Shumaker)
