One person was killed and three were wounded on Wednesday in a shooting at an El Paso, Texas, shopping mall, police said. The incident conjured up memories of a 2019 shooting that took place at a Walmart next to the mall resulting in the death of 23 people.
A police spokesman, Robert Gomez, initially told reporters one suspect was in custody, but later revealed that a second person was also taken into custody following the shooting at Texas’ Cielo Vista Mall. The two suspects as well as all four victims were males. The motive for the shooting was not yet known.
“It was chaotic. People did flee. They were scared. Like I said, there were shots fired in the mall. It does cause panic,” Gomez said.
Police called it an active scene and asked the public to avoid the area.
News video showed the parking lot filling with patrol cars, their lights flashing.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott offered “the full support of the State of Texas, including the assistance of the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Division of Emergency Management to help the city of El Paso respond to this tragic event.”
I spoke to Mayor Leeser about the shooting tonight in El Paso. l offered the full support of the State of Texas, including the assistance of the Texas Department of Public Safety and Texas Division of Emergency Management to help the city of El Paso respond to this tragic event.
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) February 16, 2023
Many workers and patrons of the mall said that the shooting opened up old wounds as many of them were at the mall when a massacre occurred next door several years ago.
The Cielo Vista mall is next to the Walmart store where a gunman killed 23 people on Aug. 3, 2019. A week ago, a Texas man pleaded guilty to federal hate crimes in that massacre in a plea deal that spared him a federal death sentence. But he still faces the death penalty in a separate state prosecution.
Copyright 2023 Thomson/Reuters. Additions and edits for FISM News by Michael Cardinal.