The Cost of Heroism: Austin Officers Head to Court After Neutralizing a Radicalized Killer

UPDATE: According to Fox News, the Austin, Texas District Attorney who mandates that all police officers involved in shootings go before a grand jury, now says he will not seek charges against the three officers who killed a gunman outside an Austin bar last weekend. D.A. Jose Garzia reversed course AFTER Texas Governor Greg Abbott said "he" would eventually have the final say on whether the officers should be charged or convicted in court.

Three Austin police officers who stopped a shooting rampage at a 6th street bar over the weekend are being forced before a grand jury.

Radical Islamic Shooter

The three police officers arrived on the scene of a shooting outside an Austin college bar early Sunday morning just as the bar was closing for the night. Police say the shooter, who was wearing a shirt that said, “Property of Allah", was a pro-Islamic Republic, Senegalese immigrant named Ndiaga Diagne, a man with a long criminal record who was made a naturalized citizen after marrying an American woman during the Obama administration. Police say he killed 3 people and wounded 14 others as he sprayed the bar with bullets.

Hate Filled Social Media Posts

According to the New York Post, who posted screenshots of the shooter's posts on X, the killer posted woman-hating, antisemitic and racist remarks on X on a regular basis. The screenshots of the posts show them as flagged for  “hateful conduct.”

Why the Grand Jury

According to the New York Post, it was soon after Austin District Attorney Jose Garza assumed office in 2021 that a mandate was issued requiring all officer involved shootings go before a grand jury. Texas lawyer Doug O’Connell’s firm was hired by the Austin Police Association to represent the officers. He told the New York Post that the grand jury mandate came at the hands of the Wren Collective, a quote “shadowy and influential left-wing Austin-based criminal-justice reform group." O'Connell is against the practice due to what he refers to as a lack of transparency.

What is The Wren Collective?

According to “KSAT Investigates”, the Wren Collective was formed in 1987 as a nonprofit in the state of Delaware under the name American Soviet Film Initiative. KSAT found tax records that show the group changed its name from American Soviet Film Initiative to Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs (SEE) in the mid-1990s. The group operated out of Southern California under the umbrella of a nonprofit.

Unelected Influence

The KSAT investigation that included over 20 public records requests and 50,000 pages of texts and emails, found that The Wren Collective is embedded in far-left prosecutors’ offices nationwide. KSAT says the group is behind the messaging of prosecutor’s offices as well as the DA’s office policies and courtroom decisions. KSAT says their investigation shows the work of unelected, outside actors “corrupting the justice system from within.” KSAT says “The Wren Collective has served as communications, policy, and legal advisor to more than 40 prosecutors nationwide.”