2023-05-07 14:10:14
A man opened fire this Saturday in a shopping center in the state of Texas, in the southern United Stateskilled eight people and injured several before being shot dead by a police officer who was on the scene.
The shooting occurred in the afternoon at Allen Premium Outlets, a sprawling shopping complex in Allen, 25 miles north of Dallas, packed with people on the weekend.
This is what is known about the fact, which once again shocks the United States.
The shooting at Allen Premium Outlets
According to Allen Police Department Chief Brian Harvey, a police officer was at the mall for another case when the shooting occurred around 3:30 p.m., local time.
The officer “heard gunshots, approached, confronted the suspect and neutralized” the individual, it added. He then called the emergency services.
According to the BNO news portal, the man arrived by car, stopped at a store belonging to the H&M chain, got out of his vehicle and immediately opened fire indiscriminately against the people who were buying.
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???????? Nine dead and seven injured in a shooting at a Texas shopping center
A shooting occurred on May 6 in a shopping center near the city of Dallas, in the southern United States, in the Allen Premium Outlets shopping center, in Allen, a suburban area. pic.twitter.com/KjcalfH2Ck
— Luis Barranco (@BarrancoAnaya) May 7, 2023
Authorities initially thought a second person might be involved, CNN reported.
But police searched the mall’s stores and, Harvey later explained, the man is believed to have “acted alone.” The shooter was wearing tactical gear, CNN said.
Media such as CNN publish this Sunday a photograph of the alleged perpetrator of the massacre, in which he appears dressed in a bulletproof vest, carrying ammunition, and next to his body a long weapon that could be an AR-15 rifle.
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The shooter was wearing tactical gear
One day after the shooting, the identity of the attacker and the motivations that led him to drive to a shopping center are still unknown and shoot indiscriminately at the people who were buying.
There is also no telling how many minutes he was shooting at the crowded Allen Premium Outlets on a Saturday afternoon.
What is known is that hundreds of people were shopping when they heard the shots. Many evacuated the center when the police arrived, hands behind their heads, while others spent hours hiding in shops, waiting for the police to come looking for them.
Although the attacker died shortly after the shooting began, panic raged for hours in the store. and there was even talk of the possible existence of another person who was shooting, information that was finally denied.
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????????| NOW: Reports of mass shooting at Allen Premium Outlets in Collin County, Texas; multiple casualties were reported. pic.twitter.com/iARZtKBWGT
—Alex Quiñones.•. (@aqmoncaleano) May 6, 2023
The wounded and the victims
The shooter’s body was found lying on the ground when police reinforcements arrived, along with the bodies of six other people.
Two more people died at the hospital, and of the injured, “three are undergoing emergency surgery and four” are in stable condition, Allen Fire Chief Jonathan Boyd said.
One of the victims is five years old, a hospital worker told NBC News.
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.
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Allen Police Chief Brian Harvey at the scene of a shooting at the Allen Premium Outlets.
“There are no safe places anymore. I don’t know what to do,” Jaynal Pervez, a man who arrived at the mall after his daughter, who was inside, called him on the phone to tell him what was happening, told CNN.
Pervez later told CBS that he witnessed chaotic scenes in the mall parking lot: “I saw shoes and mobile phones of people on the street.”
I saw shoes and mobile phones of people on the street
For his part, Texas Governor Greg Abbott called the shooting an “unspeakable tragedy.” President Joe Biden “was briefed on the shooting,” a White House official told reporters.
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Local authorities praised the speed with which the first police officer acted. “We owe a debt of gratitude to the people who responded first, who ran to the shooting and moved quickly to neutralize the threat,” said Keith Self, a Republican congressman whose district includes the city of Allen.
“Allen is a safe and proud city, which makes this senseless act of violence all the more shocking,” said Allen Fulk, the town’s mayor.
With more firearms than inhabitants, The United States has the highest gun death rate of all developed countries: 49,000 in 2021, compared to 45,000 the previous year.
There have been more than 195 mass shootings – defined as four or more people injured or killed in the same act – so far this year in the United States, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
*With AFP and EFE
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