He was 19. A Texas Tech student who joined a fraternity last autumn and, by every account from the people who actually knew him, was the sort of person who made a room better just by walking into it. Ryder Harrington didn't make it home from a night out in Austin on Sunday. A gunman opened fire outside Buford's Bar on West Sixth Street at around 2 am on 1 March 2026, killing two people and wounding 14 others. Harrington was one of them.
Since the incident, the tributes have been relentless—his fraternity, his siblings, a Texas House Speaker, strangers on the internet who never met him but donated anyway. A GoFundMe set up in his name raised more than $41,000 (approximately £30,400) in a matter of hours. None of it, of course, brings him back.
'This World Was Robbed of a Great Future'
Reed Harrington, Ryder's older brother, wrote about him on Facebook not long after the news broke. It wasn't a polished statement — it read like someone trying to process something they couldn't quite process. 'Ryder was the best mix of all the Harrington crew,' Reed wrote. 'It is unfair, to say the least, that my little brother was only given 19 years on this earth.' He added: 'Watching the man he had become, and seeing all the lives he touched, leaves me certain that this world was robbed of a great future. I don't think life will ever feel normal again.'
Reagan Harrington, his sister, posted on Instagram and called him her best friend. 'Nothing would be enough to express how special you are to me,' she wrote. 'I'm not sure how we're meant to work through this—all I can think about is seeing you again.'
His fraternity, Beta Theta Pi, put out a statement on Instagram confirming his death and announcing a candlelight vigil for Monday evening at 1410 Orlando Ave. at 8 p.m. 'From the moment he joined our brotherhood, he brought a light that was impossible to ignore,' the post read. 'Ryder had a rare ability to truly enjoy life—to make people laugh, to make moments feel bigger, and to make ordinary days unforgettable.'
The GoFundMe and the Vigil
The campaign was set up by a friend, Asher Chang, and had attracted more than $41,000 in donations by Monday morning, with a $50,000 target in sight. The money is intended to go directly to the Harrington family to cover funeral and memorial costs.
Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows posted about Harrington on X on Sunday evening, noting that the teenager was the brother-in-law of someone on his own team. 'From all accounts, Ryder was exactly the kind of young man who made a difference without even trying,' Burrows wrote. 'Full of life, loyal to his friends, proud to be a Red Raider and a Texan, and someone who showed up for the people around him.' He said he was praying for Ryder's siblings, Avery and Ryan, and the wider Harrington family, and asked others to do the same.
Ryder’s passing has hit especially close to home for our Team Burrows family. Ryder was the brother-in-law of one of our own, and our hearts are aching alongside his loved ones.
— Dustin Burrows (@Burrows4TX) March 2, 2026
From all accounts, Ryder was exactly the kind of young man who made a difference without even… https://t.co/QAhfqaTk5Z
What Happened Outside Buford's
Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said the gunman—named by police as 53-year-old Ndiaga Diagne—never went inside the bar. He pulled up on West Sixth Street near Rio Grande Street and opened fire on people standing outside, using a rifle and a handgun. Officers shot and killed him at the scene. A second victim has not yet been publicly named. Three of the 14 hospitalised were in critical condition, Austin EMS Chief Robert Luckritz confirmed.
The FBI stepped in quickly. There are 'indicators' of terrorism, the bureau said at a press conference on Sunday, though a motive has not been confirmed. Investigators were later seen at a home in Pflugerville and an apartment complex in Del Valle—both believed to be connected to the investigation. Diagne was a Senegalese national and naturalised US citizen who had been living in Pflugerville. Sources familiar with the investigation said he had a history of mental illness.
West Sixth Street is one of Austin's busiest nightlife strips. That a gunman could open fire there in the early hours of a Sunday morning—and that the FBI is now treating it as a potential act of terrorism—is the kind of thing that rattles a city. For Ryder Harrington's family and the people who grew up with him, none of that context softens anything. He was 19, by his brother's own words, given too few years, and by every account, he used them well.
