Global Courant 2023-05-07 18:41:00
ALONE, Texas –
Hundreds of terrified shoppers fled in panic after a gunman got out of a silver sedan and opened fire on a Dallas-area mall, killing eight and wounding seven before being killed by a police officer who happened to be nearby , the authorities said.
Saturday’s shooting in Allen, Texas was the latest outbreak of an unprecedented rate of mass killings in the U.S. Barely a week earlier, authorities say, a man shot and killed five people in Cleveland, Texas, after a neighbor asked him to stop firing his weapon while a baby was sleeping.
Police did not immediately provide details about the victims at Allen Premium Outlets, a sprawling open-air shopping mall, but witnesses reported seeing children among them. Some said they also saw a police officer and a mall security guard lying unconscious on the ground.
A 16-year-old pretzel stand employee, Maxwell Gum, described a virtual rush of shoppers. He and others took shelter in a storage room.
“We started running. Kids were being trampled,” Gum said. “My colleague picked up a four-year-old girl and gave it to her parents.”
Dashcam video circulating online showed the gunman getting out of a car and firing at people on the sidewalk. More than three dozen shots were heard as the vehicle recording the video drove away.
Fire Chief Jonathan Boyd van Allen said seven people, including the gunman, died at the scene. Nine victims were taken to area hospitals, but two of them died.
Three of the injured were in critical condition by evening, Boyd said, and four were stable.
An Allen Police Department officer was nearby for an unrelated call when he heard gunshots at 3:36 p.m., the department wrote on Facebook.
“The officer engaged the suspect and neutralized the threat. He then called in the emergency services,” the post said.
Mass murders are occurring at staggering frequency in the United States this year: about one a week on average, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in conjunction with Northeastern University.
US President Biden was briefed on the Allen shooting and the administration provided support to local officials, the White House said. Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott, who signed into law relaxing gun restrictions after mass shootings in the past, called the mall shooting an “unspeakable tragedy.”
A live aircast from a news station showed armored trucks and other law enforcement vehicles outside the mall. More than 30 police cars with flashing lights blocked an entrance, with multiple ambulances on the scene in the city of about 105,000, about 25 miles north of downtown Dallas.
Video shared on social media showed people running across a parking lot amid the sounds of gunfire.
Fontayne Payton, 35, was at H&M when he heard the sound of gunfire through his headphones.
“It was so loud it sounded like it was outside,” Payton said.
People in the store dispersed before employees led the group into the fitting rooms and then into a lockable back room, he said. When they were given permission to leave, Payton saw that the store had smashed windows and a trail of blood leading to the door. Discarded sandals and bloody clothes lay nearby.
Once outside, Payton saw bodies.
“I pray they weren’t kids, but they looked like kids,” he said. The bodies were covered with white towels and lay over bags on the floor. “It broke me when I walked out to see that.”
Ahead he saw the body of a heavyset man, dressed all in black. He assumed it was the shooter, Payton said, because unlike the other bodies, it wasn’t covered.
Tarakram Nunna, 25, and Ramakrishna Mullapudi, 26, said they saw three people lying motionless on the ground, including one who appeared to be a police officer and another who appeared to be a shopping mall security guard.
Another customer, Sharkie Mouli, 24, said he hid in a banana republic during the shooting. As he left, he saw what appeared to be an unconscious police officer lying next to another unconscious person outside the outlet store.
“I’ve seen his gun lying next to him and next to him a man who is about to pass out,” said Mouli.
Stan and Mary Ann Greene were browsing a sportswear store in Columbia when the shooting began.
“We had just come in, just a few minutes earlier, and we just heard a lot of loud bangs,” Mary Ann Greene told The Associated Press.
Employees rolled down the security gate and led everyone to the back of the store until police arrived and escorted them out, the Greenes said.
Eber Romero was in an Under Armor store when a cashier reported a shooting.
When he left, Romero said, the mall appeared empty and all stores had their security gates open. Then he started seeing broken glass and shooting victims on the floor of the mall.
Associated Press writers Gene Johnson in Seattle and Adam Kealoha Causey in Dallas contributed to this report.
