Austin 6th Street shooting: Waymo caught on video blocking responding ambulance

Waymo caught on camera blocking ambulance

A Waymo was caught on camera briefly blocking an ambulance responding to a shooting on Austin's 6th Street. Three people died, including the gunman, and 14 others were injured in Sunday's early morning shooting. (Courtesy: Matthew Turnage)

AUSTIN, Texas - A Waymo self-driving car was caught on video temporarily blocking an ambulance responding to the deadly shooting on 6th Street over the weekend.

An Austin police officer is seen getting into the car to help move it out of the way.

Three people were killed, including the gunman, and 14 others were injured. One person who was critically injured is expected to be taken off life support and two others are still listed in critical condition Monday according to APD.

RELATED COVERAGE: Austin 6th Street shooting: Police identify 2 killed

Local perspective:

A video posted to TikTok by Matthew Turnage shows the Waymo car stopped sideways in the road with the ambulance coming up the street with lights flashing. 

Not long into the video, an Austin police car pulled up and an officer got out 

What they're saying:

FOX 7 Austin reached out to Waymo for more information about the incident.

The company says that a rider had hailed the car for a pickup in the wake of the shooting and as the car approached the pick up spot, it "identified a road blockage and began executing a U-turn."

As another ambulance appeared mid-turn, the car "briefly yielded and was assisted by a nearby officer."

"While the Waymo Driver operates in dense U.S. cities, smoothly navigating interactions with emergency vehicles (EVs) at all hours, we are dedicated to learning from this situation and how we show up for our community as we continue improving road safety in the cities we serve," said a Waymo representative in an email to FOX 7 Austin.

ATCEMS chief speaks on video

Rescue chief talks about Waymo concerns in wake of 6th Street shooting

Authorities in Austin say they are reaching out to Waymo to express their concerns about encounters with autonomous vehicles during their response to the Sixth  Street shooting.

Austin-Travis County EMS chief Robert Luckritz addressed the incident during a press conference with Austin police chief Lisa Davis on Monday.

"[ATCEMS], as well as our fellow public safety partners, work very closely with the autonomous vehicle vendors that operate here in the city of Austin," he said. "We had more than 20 assets, resources that responded to this event. As stated at an earlier press conference, we were on scene within 57 seconds. So in the grand scheme of the impact on the overall incident, we don't believe it had any impact on patient outcomes."

Luckritz says that ATCEMS has already been in touch with Waymo to express their concerns about what happened and to work to try and address this going forward.

Deadly Austin 6th Street shooting

Austin 6th Street shooting that killed 3, wounded 14 could be act of terrorism, FBI says

A shooting outside a bar in Austin's bustling Sixth Street entertainment district left three dead and 14 wounded is being investigated as a possible act of terror, according to the FBI.

What we know:

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.

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 has been identified as 53-year-old Ndiaga 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. Authorities say that it is still premature to declare a motive in the shooting, and that Diagne was not on the radar of local or federal law enforcement at the time of the shooting.

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 Monday that the two weapons were legally purchased in 2017.

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.