Law enforcement agents walk in the parking lot of a shopping mall in El Paso, Texas, on Wednesday (Thursday NZ time) after a shooting at Cielo Vista Mall. Photo / AP
Law enforcement agents walk in the parking lot of a shopping mall in El Paso, Texas, on Wednesday (Thursday NZ time) after a shooting at Cielo Vista Mall. Photo / AP
One person was killed and three more were wounded on Wednesday (Thursday NZ time) 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.
El Paso police said hours after the gunfire that two people had been taken into custody, though details of what led to the shooting remained unclear.
Interim police chief Peter Pacillas said Cielo Vista Mall was still considered a crime scene, and 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 targeting 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.
“Today’s shooting at the Cielo Vista Mall has 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.
She urged anyone who needed it to reach out to the city’s crisis help line.
The United States has seen dozens of people killed in mass shootings so far in 2023, most recently Monday at Michigan State University, where three students were killed and five more were wounded.
In January, 11 people were killed in the Los Angeles-area city of Monterey Park as they welcomed the Lunar New Year at a dance hall popular with older Asian Americans.
Pacillas said the two people taken into custody after Wednesday’s shooting as well as all of the victims were males.
The University Medical Centre in El Paso said in a statement that 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.
Law enforcement agents at an entrance to the Cielo Vista Mall in El Paso, after a shooting on Wednesday night (Thursday NZ time). Photo / AP
Authorities set up a reunification centre at a nearby high school, where those affected by the shooting could reconnect with loved ones.
The FBI, which is assisting El Paso police in the investigation, set up a website where the public can share photos or video from the shooting: www.fbi.gov/cielovistamallshooting.
Republican Governor Greg Abbott said in a tweet on Wednesday night (last night NZ time) that he had spoken to the mayor of El Paso and offered assistance from the Texas Department of Public and Safety and the Texas Division of Emergency Management.
In 2022, more than 600 mass shootings occurred in the US in which at least four people were killed or wounded, according to the Gun Violence Archive. - AP
