At least 18 said killed in mass shooting at shopping complex in El Paso, Texas

EL PASO, Texas — At least 18 people were killed and dozens were wounded in a shooting rampage on Saturday at a Texas shopping mall, ABC News reported, citing local officials.

At least one person was in custody, police in the border town of El Paso said, but there were conflicting reports on whether there were more suspected gunmen.

Police responded in the early afternoon to an active shooter scene at the Cielo Vista Mall, near Interstate 10 on the east side of the city, and were advising people to stay away from the area and to look for missing family members at a school being used as a reunification area.

Police Sgt. Enrique Carrillo told reporters that the attack had ended.

Ryan Mielke, a spokesman for University Medical Center of El Paso, said 12 people were brought to the hospital with injuries, including one that died. Two of the injured were children who were being transferred to El Paso Children’s Hospital, he said. He declined to provide additional details on the victims. Eleven other victims were being treated at Del Sol Medical Center, according to hospital spokesman Victor Guerrero

Olivia Zepeda, the chief of staff to El Paso Mayor Dee Margo, told CNN that multiple people had been killed in the attack in or near the Cielo Vista Mall. She didn’t say how many victims there were.

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick told Fox News that between 15 and 20 people had been shot and that one suspect in custody was a 21-year-old man.

Local media released security photos it said showed the shooter entering the shopping center.

https://twitter.com/KTSMtv/status/1157738574676201478

 

A witness who gave her name as Vanessa said she had just pulled into the parking lot at Walmart and “all of a sudden you heard what sounded like fireworks, really loud fireworks.”

“You could hear the pops, one right after another and at that point as I was turning, I saw a lady, seemed she was coming out of Walmart, headed to her car. She had her groceries in her cart and I saw her just fall,” she told Fox News.

Please stay clear of the surrounding area of Cielo Vista Mall. Reunification center for families at McCarthur Middle School on Whittus.

— EL PASO POLICE DEPT (@EPPOLICE) August 3, 2019

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called the shooting “a heinous and senseless act of violence” and said the state had deployed a number of law enforcement officers to the city.

White House staff said that US President Donald Trump had been briefed on the shooting and spoke about it with Attorney General Barr and Governor Abbott.

Trump later called the shooting “terrible” in a Twitter post.

“Reports are very bad, many killed. Working with State and Local authorities, and Law Enforcement. Spoke to Governor to pledge total support of Federal Government. God be with you all!” Trump wrote.

Terrible shootings in ElPaso, Texas. Reports are very bad, many killed. Working with State and Local authorities, and Law Enforcement. Spoke to Governor to pledge total support of Federal Government. God be with you all!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 3, 2019

Democratic presidential candidate and former US Rep. Beto O’Rourke, who is from El Paso, said he was distraught by the news of the shooting.

An emotional O’Rourke told reporters in Las Vegas that he had spoken by phone to the mayor, the city’s sheriff and US Rep. Veronica Escobar. He said they were still learning details about the attack.

Mayor Margo acknowledged that there had been a number of deaths after gunfire was first heard around 10 am.

“I can’t confirm the number of fatalities. But there are fatalities,” he told CNN.

“It is a tragedy and I don’t want to comment until I have full information. It is a tragedy, I’m just so torn up about it.”

O’Rourke said he planned to return home immediately to be with his family. He asked “for everyone’s strength for El Paso right now. Everyone’s resolve to make sure that this does not continue to happen in this country.”

“We have to find some reason for optimism and hope or else we consign ourselves to a future where nearly 40,000 people a year will lose their lives to gun violence and I cannot accept that,” O’Rourke said.

Israel’s foreign ministry said that its consulate in Texas was in contact with local authorities and there were no reports of Israelis in the area.

It has been a particularly bad week for gun violence in the US, and Saturday’s attack was the second fatal shooting in less than a week at a Walmart.

Two people died and a police officer was wounded Tuesday at a Walmart in Mississippi.

Last Sunday a 19-year-old gunman opened fire at a food festival in northern California, killing three, including two children.

El Paso, which has about 680,000 residents, is in West Texas and sits across the border from Juarez, Mexico.