Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said he had been in contact with the mayor of El Paso.
“I spoke to Mayor Leeser about the shooting tonight in El Paso,” Abbott said on Twitter. “I offered the full support of the State of Texas, including the assistance of the Texas Department of Public Safety and Texas Division of Emergency Management to help the city of El Paso respond to this tragic event.”
One person is dead and three others injured after a shooting at the Cielo Vista mall in El Paso, Texas, Wednesday, authorities said.
Two suspects are now in custody, according to police.
The mall is located near a Walmart where 23 people were killed in a racist shooting in August 2019. We don’t have any active shooters at this time,” El Paso Police Department spokesman Sgt. Robert Gomez said. “All we know right now it’s isolated to Cielo Vista Mall.”
On top of the one confirmed casualty, the three injured individuals were transported to local hospitals, according to Gomez.
Gomez said that there were indications that the shooting occurred “in the approximate area of the food court, but that was not confirmed.”
Cielo Vista Mall is located across the street from a Walmart where, in 2019, a 24-year-old shooter killed 23 individuals after targeting Hispanic people. That shooter pleaded guilty to federal hate crimes and gun charges one week ago.
Two of the wounded victims were in critical condition, according to Ryan Mielke, a spokesman for University Medical Center of El Paso.
The local emergency management agency established a family reception center at the main gym of a local high school, local officials said.
Rep. Veronica Escobar, whose district includes El Paso, recalled the 2019 shooting on Twitter and said Wednesday's gunfire "brought back traumatic memories for many of us," adding, "Please know you are not alone."
The mall is immediately 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. local time Wednesday after receiving several reports of a possible active shooter, Gomez said. Authorities asked people to avoid the area as the scene was still active.
The police earlier said gun shots were reported at the centre's food court.
The Cielo Vista Mall is located near a Walmart supermarket where 23 people were killed in a racist attack in August 2019, one of the deadliest mass shootings in US history.
A week ago the gunman in that attack, Patrick Crusius, pleaded guilty to 90 federal counts including hate crimes and firearms offences.
And on Monday, three students were killed and five others injured after a gunman opened fire on the Michigan State University (MSU) campus.
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