EL PASO, TEXAS (AP) – One person was killed and three more were wounded yesterday in a shooting at a shopping mall in El Paso, Texas, adding to the dozens of people already killed this year in mass shootings across the United States (US).
El Paso police said hours after the gunfire that two people had been taken into custody, though details of what led the shooting remained unclear.
Interim police chief Peter Pacillas said that Cielo Vista Mall was still considered a crime scene, and that it would remain locked down until authorities had completed their investigation.
Pacillas stressed that the danger had passed.
“There is no more danger. I want to repeat that: There is no more danger to the public,” Pacillas said.
The shooting happened in a busy shopping area and across a large parking lot from a Walmart where 23 people were killed in a racist attack targetting Hispanic people in 2019.
El Paso – with a largely Latino population of about 700,000 people – sits on the US border with Mexico, where residents of both countries cross frequently.
“The shooting at the Cielo Vista Mall brought back traumatic memories for many of us.
Please know you are not alone,” Democratic US Representative Veronica Escobar, whose district includes El Paso, said on Twitter.
Pacillas said the two people taken into custody after the shooting as well as all of the victims were males.
University Medical Center in El Paso said in a statement two gunshot victims being treated there were in critical condition.
The condition of the third victim was not immediately known.
Police earlier said the shooting was reported in the shopping mall’s food court.
