At least eight people were killed and seven others wounded Saturday afternoon when a gunman opened fire at an Allen Premium Outlets mall in Allen, Texas, a suburb of the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, authorities said. The suspected shooter is dead, officials said.
At a news conference Saturday night, Allen Fire Chief Jonathan Boyd confirmed that seven people were pronounced dead at the scene and nine others were taken to local hospitals by paramedics. Two of those transported later died, Boyd said.
Police said the suspect was among those killed at the scene. No names were immediately released.
Three of the injured were in “serious injuries” and four others were stable, Boyd revealed.
Allen Police Chief Brian Harvey reported that an officer was on an unrelated call at about 3:36 a.m. local time when he heard gunshots, responded and “neutralized” the suspect.
“He heard the gunshots, heard the gunshots, located the shooter, neutralized the threat,” Harvey said.
The gunman is believed to have acted alone, Harvey said. Authorities declined to provide further details and did not take questions.
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Janet St. James, a spokeswoman for Medical City Health Care, told CBS News that its trauma facilities received eight gunshot victims ranging in age from 5 to 61.
In an earlier briefing, Boyd said “other potential injury victims” may have been transported in private vehicles, but those are the ones we know of,” he said of the nine victims taken by ambulance.
Videos posted on social media show gunshots and panic among people in shopping malls.
“We were at Johnson & Murphy, shopping for shoes, and we heard some pops go off, like 10,” one person told CBS Texas. “And I look at the customer next to me, and I go, ‘Was that a gunshot?’ And we were all like, ‘No, we don’t think so.’ We ran forward when we heard 20 more pops. And right next to it was a guy, like Francesca, in a fully clothed assault rifle, shooting at people.”
“We saw bodies going down,” said one woman.
Agents with the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were on the scene. Allen police asked anyone who may have cellphone video of the shooting to contact the FBI.
A White House official confirmed to CBS News that President Biden has been informed of the shooting and is monitoring the situation.
In a statement, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said he “offered the full support of the state of Texas to local officials to ensure that all necessary assistance and resources, including DPS officers, Texas Rangers and investigative resources, are quickly deployed.”