WASHINGTON: As many as nine people were killed in a shooting at an outlet mall near Dallas and seven injured persons were undergoing treatment, The New York Times reported citing officials on Saturday night.
Brian E Harvey, the chief of police in Allen, Texas, said at a news conference on Saturday night that the gunman, who hasn’t yet been identified, acted alone. A police officer, who was on another assignment at the mall at the time of the shooting, heard gunfire, rushed towards it, and killed the shooter.
Around 3.30 pm (local time), a shooting was witnessed at the Allen Premium Outlets, an outdoor shopping centre with more than 120 retailers located about 25 miles north of Dallas, according to New York Times. Social media users posted a video showing the shooter lying on the ground, dressed in all-black, holding a long rifle, and what appeared to be several rounds of ammo and a tactical vest.
Hundreds of consumers were seen leaving the area on video taken from the scene while many of them had their hands raised. The aerial footage showed at least three bodies covered in sheets outside the mall, reported New York Times.
Allen, Texas, Fire Chief Jonathan Boyd said nine people were rushed to hospitals. “Of those that we transported, two have since died. Three are in critical surgery, and four are stable”, Boyd added. A medical facility in the Dallas area was reported to have treated patients as young as five years old.
The mass shooting in Allen is the most recent in a long line of gun attacks across the country that have terrorised stores, hospitals, schools and other places that are normally thought to be secure. It happens only days after a shooter allegedly opened fire with a handgun inside a hospital in Atlanta, killing a person and wounding four others before he was arrested hours later, according to The New York Times.
The attack was termed an “unspeakable tragedy” by the Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, saying in a statement that “our hearts are with the people of Allen, Texas.”
Saturday’s incident is the second-deadliest shooting of the year after the massacre in Monterey Park California, in which a shooter killed 11 people in a ballroom on January 21.
The Gun Violence Archive, a database of shootings in the US, reports that 199 “mass shootings,” which it defines as shootings involving at least four victims, had occurred in 2023. An especially tragic wave of widespread shootings was witnessed earlier this week.
Last Saturday, a shooter in Cleveland, Texas, shot and killed five people after being requested to stop by his neighbours. He was apprehended following a several-day manhunt, New York Times reported. (ANI)