Gunman kills at least 20 people inside a shopping mall in Texas
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EL PASO ( TEXAS)— A gunman who opened fire at a shopping mall in El Paso on Saturday killed 20 people, according to Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas.
The police said that one suspect, a white male in his 20s from Allen, Tex., was in custody, and that the gunman had fired an A.K.-47-style rifle into the crowded store, sending panicked shoppers fleeing for their lives. Officials said the gunman had surrendered to the police.
Chief Greg Allen of the El Paso Police Department said they were looking at potential capital murder charges.
Several officials identified the gunman as Patrick Crusius, 21.
The gunfire on Saturday in El Paso began a few minutes before 11 a.m., at a Walmart store in a popular commercial district near Cielo Vista Mall with scores of restaurants and stores that are often crowded on the weekends. The Walmart, near Hawkins Boulevard and Gateway Boulevard West a short distance from the mall, was packed at the time.
Enrique Duenas-Aguilar, a spokesman for the El Paso Fire Department, said emergency workers had transported 18 people who were wounded to nearby hospitals. “We don’t have any numbers on fatalities as of right now,” Mr. Duenas-Aguilar said.
Local hospitals are treating patients from the scene. Victor Guerrero, a spokesman for Del Sol Medical Center, said the hospital was treating 11 victims. Nine were in critical but stable condition and two were stable, he said. Patient ages ranged from 35 to 82.
Courtesy: New York Times
The University Medical Center of El Paso received 13 patients, according to Ryan Mielke, the hospital’s spokesman. He said two minors, including a two-year-old, were stabilized and transferred to El Paso Children’s Hospital. Mr. Mielke said the victims’ conditions ranged from minor injury to fatal.
