“The three people killed in the Austin bar shooting were students.” — Elon Musk. Our verdict: Partly True.

What we found

The evidence

• Supports the claim

  The FBI's investigative update confirms that three people were killed and 15 injured in the March 1, 2026 shooting outside Buford's Backyard Beer Garden in downtown Austin. [1]

• Supports the claim

  Fox 7 Austin reports that Savitha Shan, one of the three victims, was a senior at the University of Texas at Austin. [2]

• Background

  KXAN identifies two victims as students, Savitha Shan at UT Austin and Ryder Harrington, who previously attended Texas Tech University, and does not mention student status for Jorge Pederson. [3]

• Supports the claim

  Spectrum Local News confirms Savitha Shan was a student and does not identify Jorge Pederson as a student. [4]

• Supports the claim

  NBC News confirms the deaths of three people in the Austin shooting and identifies Ryder Harrington as a student. [5]

• Background

  Tech Times reports that Elon Musk claimed the three victims were students, and notes that the FBI said the victims were not all students. [6]

What we could not confirm

• Whether Jorge Pederson, the third victim, had any student status that was not reported publicly.

How we checked

We looked at official FBI statements and news reports from several outlets that named the victims and described their backgrounds, checking whether each of the three was identified as a student. We reviewed 10 relevant sources.