Americans were grappling Sunday with yet another mass shooting after a heavily-armed man stormed a shopping mall in Texas, murdering eight people and wounding several others before he was killed by police.
Responders, distressed witnesses and police described scenes of panic and horror north of Dallas, where video footage circulating online showed the shooter getting out of a sedan in the outlet mall’s parking lot Saturday and opening fire on people walking nearby.
An officer inside on an unrelated call quickly responded to the gunfire and “neutralized” the shooter at the sprawling facility in Allen, police said.
The identity of the shooter was not released and no motive was put forward. The suspect’s body, sprawled on a sidewalk, was one of seven deaths at the mall when more police arrived.
Two others died in the hospital while “three are in critical surgery, and four are stable,” said Allen fire chief Jonathan Boyd.
US President Joe Biden, a proponent of stricter gun laws, released a proclamation Sunday “as a mark of respect for the victims of the senseless acts of violence” in Allen. It ordered US flags be lowered to half staff at the White House, public buildings and military facilities.
Awash in firearms, the country has already endured 199 mass shootings this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a non-governmental organization which defines a mass shooting as four or more people wounded or killed.
Credit: AFP