At least eight people were killed and another seven wounded when a gunman opened fire Saturday afternoon at Allen Premium Outlets, a mall in Allen, Texas, a suburb in the Dallas–Fort Worth metropolitan area, authorities said. The suspect was shot and killed by an officer.
In a news conference Saturday night, Allen Fire Chief Jonathan Boyd confirmed that six victims were pronounced dead at the scene, and another nine were rushed by paramedics to local hospitals. Two of those transported later died, Boyd said. The suspect also died at the scene.
Three of the wounded victims were in “critical surgery,” and four others were stable, Boyd disclosed. No names were immediately released.
Allen Police Chief Brian Harvey reported that an officer was on an unrelated call at about 3:36 p.m. local time when he heard gunshots, responded, and “neutralized” the suspect.
“He heard gunshots, located the gunshots, located the shooter, neutralized the threat,” Harvey told reporters.
The shooter is believed to have acted alone, Harvey said. Authorities declined to provide further details or take questions.
Janet St. James, a spokesperson for Medical City Healthcare, told CBS News that its trauma facilities had received at least eight shooting victims who ranged in age from 5 to 61 years old.
In an earlier briefing, Boyd said that “there may have been” other potential injury victims “transported in private vehicles, but those are the ones that we know of,” he said of the nine victims taken to hospitals by ambulance.
Video posted to social media captured the sound of gunfire and panic among people at the mall.
“We were in Johnson & Murphy, shopping for shoes, and we heard some pops go off, like 10,” one man told CBS Texas. “And I looked at the customer next to me, and I go, like, ‘Was that gunfire?’ And we were all like, ‘No, we don’t think so.’ We ran to the front when we heard like 20 more pops go off. And there was a guy right across, near like Francesca’s, in a full outfitted assault rifle, just shooting at people.”
“We saw bodies going down,” a woman said.
Agents with the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were on scene. Allen police asked anyone who may have cell phone video of the shooting to contact the FBI.
A White House official confirmed to CBS News that President Biden had been briefed on the shooting and was monitoring the situation.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in a statement that he had “offered the full support of the state of Texas to local officials to ensure all needed assistance and resources are swiftly deployed, including DPS officers, Texas Rangers, and investigative resources.”
In Saturday’s briefing, Republican Rep. Keith Self said that “we will never know how many lives were saved by the swift actions of our first responders. What we do know is that we owe a debt of gratitude to first responders that ran towards the gunfire and acted swiftly to neutralize the threat.”
