Eight people were killed and seven wounded by a gunman dressed in black tactical gear who got out of his car at a Texas mall Saturday and opened fire in the parking lot — before being shot dead himself by a police officer at the scene, officials said.
The deadly mass shooting unfolded at 3:36 p.m. at the Allen Premium Outlets — about 30 minutes north of Dallas — when a lone gunman got out of a vehicle and began firing, according to police and footage from the parking lot.
An officer who was at the mall responding to an unrelated call heard the shots, ran toward the sound, and “engaged and neutralized the threat,” Allen Police Chief Brian Harvey told reporters at a press briefing.
Six victims of the shooter were found dead at the scene, while nine others were transported to area hospitals for treatment, two of which later died from their wounds, Allen Fire Chief Jonathan Boyd said.
Police did not give the ages of the victims but witnesses said children were among the casualties — and that they saw what looked like a cop or mall guard wounded on the ground.
“I pray it wasn’t kids, but it looked like kids,” said Fontayne Payton, 35, a worker at an H&M store outside of which the bodies of several victims could be seen in video footage lying under sheets.
In the footage, a person dressed in black stops their silver sedan, opens the driver’s side door and begins firing multiple rounds at passersby. The shots go on for nearly 30 seconds before the clip ends.
The attacker was “shooting his gun everywhere,” one witness said.
Graphic video circulating on social media shows the body of a man shot in the incident who is purported to be the slain shooter.
The man is seen in heavy military tactical gear in a pool of his own blood on the sidewalk outside of a Fatburger location in the mall.
Multiple marked vehicles from the Allen Police Department can be seen parked nearby in the background.
In the clip, a number of people can be heard casually talking about the body of the shooter while still clutching their shopping bags.
Behind the man, who is dressed in all black, an assault rifle can be seen lying on the ground, the video shows.
“We believe he acted alone and we don’t believe there’s another threat at this time,” Harvey said.
While officials have not named the shooter as of early Sunday, police searched a home in Northeast Dallas that is reportedly where he lived.
The man, who is in his 30s, lives with his parents and is said to drive a gray Dodge Charger and occasionally be seen in a security guard-type uniform, WFAA-TV reported.
The FBI was also involved in the search and talking to the family through a translator, the report said.
Aerial footage broadcast on local news stations appeared to show approximately four bodies hidden underneath white sheets in an outdoor area of the mall with visible blood stains.
The gunfire sent terrified shoppers sprinting for their lives, with some barricading themselves in the back of stores and in hallways
Maxwell Gum, a 16-year-old shift leader at Wetzel’s Pretzels, was on his lunch break when a family with limited English fled into the back of his store, yelling “Gun! Shoot!” at him as shots rang out.
The teen ushered the family into the long delivery corridor that runs behind the mall’s stores, hoping they would find safety there.
Instead, they found chaos.
“There were probably like 300 people pouring in from all the different doors,” Gum told the Associated Press. “People are freaking out, we’re hearing screaming.”
“As I was holding the door open and letting customers inside the store… he [the shooter] was just blazing and shooting his gun,” one unidentified witness told CNN, adding the assailant was walking down the sidewalk “shooting his gun everywhere.”
Source: https://nypost.com/2023/05/06/active-shooter-opens-fire-at-allen-texas-outlet-mall/