[9][5] The shooting took place four hours before the midnight start of a nationwide lockdown as new COVID-19 restrictions were due to come into force in Austria, including a 20:00 to 06:00 curfew.

[19][20] The wounded officer and an elderly woman were saved by a Palestinian and two Turkish-Austrian men, who carried them away from the attacker to ambulances.

[2] As a result, the police received a large number of videos from the public following the attack, and an investigation team examined them for evidence.

[8] On the morning of 3 November, searches of apartments linked with the perpetrator took place, and in his home they found a stockpile of ammunition.

[19][22] Austrian authorities said at 01:00 that at least one gunman remained on the run,[23][20][24] but that afternoon Minister of the Interior Karl Nehammer said there was no indication of additional attackers.

[29][30] He was a dual citizen of Austria and North Macedonia of Albanian ethnic origin[31] and was known to the Austrian Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counterterrorism.

[36] Hours before the attack, Fejzulai had pledged allegiance to ISIL in Arabic in an Instagram post, using the name Abu Dujana al-Albani.

[37] A large police deployment took place in Vienna right after the attack, and members of EKO Cobra and WEGA were brought in to hunt for the perpetrators.

[2][23][38] Vienna police said that special forces entered the gunman's apartment using explosives, and a search of its surroundings was underway on 3 November.

[43][44] The Melit-Ibrahim-Moschee had previously reportedly been frequented by Islamist Mohamed M. and an Islamic State supporter who was subsequently jailed.