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Footage captured a startling moment when a Waymo self-driving vehicle briefly blocked Austin ambulance crews rushing to the scene of Sunday’s deadly mass shooting.
The incident occurred around 2 a.m. at a popular entertainment hub, where a gunman fatally shot three people and wounded 13 more.
In the footage, the Waymo car comes to a sideways stop in the road as an ambulance heads up the street with flashing lights.
As the vehicle appeared slow to react, intermittently moving and stopping, visibly distressed witnesses shouted at it to move.
A Waymo self-driving car is seen blocking emergency responders in downtown Austin. (Matthew Turnage/Fox 7 Austin)
Moments later, an Austin police car arrives, and an officer enters the Waymo vehicle, driving it into a nearby garage.
The company told Fox News Digital that, in the wake of the shooting, a Waymo car had been hailed by a rider for pickup when it identified a “road blockage and began executing a U-turn.”
As the ambulance appeared mid-turn, the car then “briefly yielded and was assisted by a nearby officer.”
TEXAS DEMOCRATIC SENATE CANDIDATES SIDESTEP ISLAMIC TERRORISM CONCERNS FOLLOWING DEADLY AUSTIN ATTACK
A Waymo self-driving vehicle is positioned near police cars with flashing lights outside a downtown Austin parking facility at night. (Matthew Turnage/Fox 7 Austin)
The company added that the incident served as a learning opportunity for road safety, particularly in densely populated cities.
The Austin-Travis County EMS (ATCEMS) chief addressed the incident Monday, emphasizing that the blockage likely had little impact on the victims’ outcomes as police still arrived at the scene in less than a minute.
A police officer enters a Waymo self-driving car. (Matthew Turnage/Fox 7 Austin)
“[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,” Robert Luckritz said during a press conference. “We had more than 20 assets, resources that responded to this event. As said 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 added that ATCEMS has been in contact with Waymo to discuss steps for addressing the issue moving forward.
Police drive the Waymo self-driving vehicle into a garage in downtown Austin. (Matthew Turnage/Fox 7 Austin)
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Early Sunday, multiple people were shot outside Buford’s Backyard Beer Garden on West 6th Street in downtown Austin, Texas.
Sources said the mass shooting is being investigated as a potential terrorism nexus, possibly linked to the recent U.S. and Israel strike on Iran, after the suspect — identified as 53-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen Ndiaga Diagne — was found wearing a “Property of Allah” sweatshirt and an undershirt depicting the Iranian flag.
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