Monitoring Desk
TEXAS: One person is dead and three others wounded after a shooting on Wednesday at the Cielo Vista shopping mall in El Paso, Texas, according to police.
According to CNN, two men are in custody and there is no longer a threat to the public, interim El Paso Police Chief Peter Pacillas said at a news conference Wednesday night. police Sgt. Robert Gomez said that “It was chaotic. citizens did flee. They were scared,”
Two male victims have been ought to the University Medical Center of El Paso in critical condition, the hospital confirmed to CNN. The condition of the third male victim who Gomez said was also hospitalized, is unclear.
The shopping mall
The mall is adjacent to a Walmart where a shooting in 2019 killed 23 and left nearly two dozen more injured. The 24-year-old gunman pleaded guilty to 90 federal charges last week as part of a plea deal.
So far this year, there have been more than 70 mass shootings across the United States, according to the Gun Violence Archive. Both CNN and GVA define a “mass shooting” as a shooting that injured or killed four or more people, not including the shooter.
Police responded to the Cielo Vista Mall shortly after 5 p.m. on Wednesday evening after receiving several reports of the possible active shooter, Gomez said. Authorities asked citizens to avoid the area as the scene was still active.
The scene was later secured but the police and law enforcement from several agencies have still working to clear a mall Wednesday evening, Gomez said, noting that it may take some time given size of the shopping center.
Gomez said that Investigators preliminarily believe that the shooting took place around the mall’s food court.
Robert Gonzalez told CNN he “saw citizens running to the exit.” Videos taken by Gonzalez show several mall storefronts closed with their security gates down and several law enforcement vehicles outside as an ambulance arrives. Video from another witness also showed an ambulance arriving.
