Multiple people, including children, were hurt or dead after a gunman opened fire at a Texas mall Saturday — and the rampage was stopped by a police officer at the scene who killed the shooter, officials said.
At least nine people were taken to area trauma facilities in Allen, Tx., but authorities “do not have an accurate count” of the number of people hurt or killed, Allen Police Chief Brian Harvey said.
More victims may have been taken to hospitals by private means, he added.
The attacker was “shooting his gun everywhere,” one witness said.
The chaos unfolded at 3:36 p.m. Saturday at the Allen Premium Outlets, about 30 minutes north of Dallas.
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,” Harvey told reporters.
“We believe he acted alone and we don’t believe there’s another threat at this time,” the chief 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.
“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.”
The shooter wore a vest and “looked like he was trained … he knew what he wanted to do,” a mall worker whose manager saw the gunman told CNN.
Several shots went off before “a lot of people started running straight to our door trying to come in,” the worker said, adding, “our manager he went out, just when he was opening the door people kept trying to come in, I guess he saw the person with a vest and everything, had a gun, it looked like an AK.”
Hundreds could be seen on news footage evacuating from the mall in Allen, Tx., which is about 30 minutes outside Dallas.
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