A gunman killed eight people and wounded seven others, three critically, in a shooting at a Dallas-area mall before being fatally shot by a police officer standing nearby, they said. Saturday the authorities.
Authorities did not immediately provide details about the victims, but witnesses said they saw children among them. Some said they also saw what appeared to be a police officer and mall security guard unconscious on the ground.
The shooting was the latest episode of gun violence to hit the country. It sent hundreds of shoppers fleeing in panic.
Allen police said in a Facebook post that nine victims had been taken to hospitals. Medical City Healthcare, a Dallas-area hospital system, said in a written statement that it was treating eight people ages 5 to 61.
Dashcam video that circulated online showed a gunman getting out of a vehicle outside the mall and immediately starting shooting people on the sidewalk. More than three dozen gunshots could be heard as the vehicle recording the video drove away.
An Allen police officer was in the area on an unrelated call when he heard gunshots at 3:36 p.m., the police department wrote on Facebook.
“The officer engaged the suspect and neutralized the threat. He then called emergency personnel. Nine victims were transported to local hospitals by the Allen Fire Department,” the agency wrote in the release of Facebook. “There is no longer an active threat.”
Mass killings are occurring with surprising frequency in the United States this year — an average of one a week, according to an analysis of AP/USA Today data.
The White House said President Biden had been briefed on the shooting and that the administration had offered support to local officials. Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who has signed laws easing restrictions on firearms after past mass shootings, called it an “unspeakable tragedy.”
A crowd of hundreds of shoppers stood outside across the street from the mall Saturday evening. The officers circulated among themselves asking if anyone had seen what happened.
Fontayne Payton, 35, was in H&M when she heard the gunshots through her headphones.
“It was so loud it sounded like it was right outside,” Payton said.
People in the store dispersed before employees ushered the group into changing rooms and then into a locked back room, he said. When they were given permission to leave, Payton saw that the store had broken windows and a trail of blood on the door. Nearby were discarded sandals and bloody clothing.
Once outside, Payton saw bodies.
“I pray they weren’t kids, but they looked like kids,” he said. The bodies were covered in white towels, slumped over bags on the floor, he said.
“It broke my heart when I went out to see this,” he said.
Farther away, he saw the body of a burly man dressed in black. He assumed he was the shooter, Payton said, because unlike the other bodies it had not been covered up.
Tarakram Nunna, 25, and Ramakrishna Mullapudi, 26, said they saw what appeared to be three people lying motionless on the ground, including one who appeared to be a police officer and another who appeared to be a security guard ‘a shopping center.
Another shopper, Sharkie Mouli, 24, said he hid in a Banana Republic store during the shooting. As he was leaving, he saw what appeared to be an unconscious police officer lying next to another unconscious person outside the outlet store.
“I saw his gun next to him and a guy who looks like he’s passed out next to him,” Mouli said.
Stan and Mary Ann Greene were browsing in the Columbia sportswear store when the shooting began.
“We had just come in, just a couple of minutes before, and we just heard a lot of spraying,” Mary Ann Greene told The Associated Press.
Employees immediately lowered the security door and ushered everyone to the back of the store until police arrived and escorted them out, the Greenes said.
Eber Romero was at the Under Armor store when a cashier mentioned there had been a shooting.
When he left the store, Romero said, the mall looked empty and all the stores had their security doors down. That’s when he started seeing broken glass and people who had been shot on the ground.
Video shared on social media showed people running through a parking lot as gunshots rang out.
More than 30 police vehicles with flashing lights blocked the entrance to the mall, with several ambulances at the scene.
A live aerial feed from the news station showed armored trucks and other police vehicles parked outside the sprawling open-air mall.
Ambulances from several neighboring cities responded to the scene.
The Dallas office of the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also responded.
Allen, a suburb about 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of downtown Dallas, has approximately 105,000 residents.
