A shooter kills eight people in a shopping center in Texas, USA

First modification: 05/07/2023 – 07:28

“We found seven people dead at the scene. We transported nine people to the hospital… Of those we transported, two have since died,” said Jonathan Boyd, fire chief in Allen, a Dallas suburb where the incident occurred. the shooting. The shooting sparked panic at the Allen Premium Outlets, a sprawling shopping complex in Allen, 25 miles north of Dallas, packed with shoppers on the weekend.

A police officer was at the mall when the shooting took place around 3:30 p.m. local time (2030 GMT), said Brian Harvey, chief of the Allen, Texas, police department. “He heard gunshots, approached the gunshots, confronted the suspect, and neutralized the suspect,” Harvey said. “He also called ambulances.”

The identity of the shooter was not released. His body, lying on a sidewalk, was one of seven bodies found in the mall when more police arrived. Among the injured taken to nearby hospitals, “three are undergoing emergency surgery and four” are stable, according to the fire chief. One of the victims is 5 years old, a hospital worker told NBC News. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called the mass shooting an “unspeakable tragedy.”

President Joe Biden “was briefed on the shooting,” a White House official told reporters. “We owe a debt of gratitude to the first responders who rushed to the shooting and moved quickly to neutralize the threat,” said Keith Self, a Republican congressman whose district includes the city of Allen.

-He acted alone-

Footage broadcast by showed the shooter getting out of a sedan car in the mall parking lot and going on a rampage. Authorities initially thought there might be a second shooter, reported. But police combed the mall’s stores, and Harvey later said police believe the man, who reported was wearing tactical gear, “acted alone.”

Janet St. James, a spokeswoman for Medical City Healthcare, which runs multiple trauma centers in North Texas, said she received eight shooting patients ranging in age from five to 61, NBC News reported. A man who arrived at the mall after his daughter, who was inside, called to tell him about the shooting, also told that police had informed him of a possible second shooter.

“We saw the police at the door and they told us we had to leave and they were still looking for the person,” Jaynal Pervez said, according to . “There are no safe places anymore. I don’t know what to do.” Pervez later told CBS that he witnessed chaotic scenes in the mall parking lot. “I saw the shoes over there, mobile phones of people on the street.”

With more firearms than people, the United States has the highest rate of firearm deaths of any developed country: 49,000 in 2021, up from 45,000 the year before. There have been more than 195 mass shootings – defined as four or more people injured or killed in one event – so far this year in the United States, according to the Gun Violence Archive.