8 killed in Texas mall shooting, gunman also dead, police say

WARNING: This story contains graphic details.

Hundreds of terrified shoppers fled in panic after a gunman stepped out of a silver sedan and opened fire at a Dallas-area outlet mall, killing eight and wounding seven before being killed by a police officer who happened to be nearby, authorities said.

The shooting in Allen, Texas, on Saturday was the latest eruption of what has been an unprecedented pace of mass killings in the U.S. Barely a week before, authorities say, a man fatally shot five people in Cleveland, Texas, after a neighbour asked him to stop firing his weapon while a baby slept.

Police did not immediately provide details about the victims at Allen Premium Outlets, a sprawling outdoor shopping centre, but witnesses reported seeing children among them. Some said they also saw what appeared to be a police officer and a mall security guard unconscious on the ground.

A 16-year-old pretzel stand employee, Maxwell Gum, described a virtual stampede of shoppers. He and others sheltered in a storage room.

"We started running. Kids were getting trampled," Gum said. "My co-worker picked up a four-year-old girl and gave her to her parents."

Officers cried, says pastor

John Mark Caton, senior pastor at Cottonwood Creek Church, about three kilometresfrom the mall, offered prayers on Sunday during his weekly service for victims, first responders and the shoppers and employees who "walked out past things they never should have seen."

"Some of our people were there. Some perhaps in this room. Some of our students were working in those stores and will be changed forever by this," Caton said.

Recalling phone conversations with police officers, he said: "There wasn't an officer that I talked to yesterday that at some point in the call didn't cry."

Dozens of shots

Dashcam video circulating online showed the gunman getting out of a car and shooting at people on the sidewalk. More than three dozen shots could be heard as the vehicle that was recording the video drove off.

Allenfire Chief Jonathan Boyd said seven people including the shooter died at the scene. Nine victims were taken to area hospitals, but two of them died.

Three of the wounded were in critical condition in the evening, Boyd said, and four were stable.

An Allen Police Department officer was in the area on an unrelated call when he heard shots at 3:36 p.m., the department wrote on Facebook.

"The officer engaged the suspect and neutralized the threat. He then called for emergency personnel," the post said.

Mass killings are happening with staggering frequency in the United States this year: an average of about one per week, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.

An 'unspeakable tragedy'

Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has signed laws easing firearms restrictions following past mass shootings, called the mall shooting an "unspeakable tragedy."

In a statement issued Sunday, U.S. President Joe Biden said the assailant wore tactical gear and fired an AR-15-style weapon. He urged Congress to enact tighter restrictions on firearms and ammunition.

"Such an attack is too shocking to be so familiar. And yet, American communities have suffered roughly 200 mass shootings already this year, according to leading counts," said Biden, who ordered flags lowered to half-staff.

Republicans in Congress, he said, "cannot continue to meet this epidemic with a shrug."

A live aerial broadcast from a news station showed armoured trucks and other law enforcement vehicles outside the mall. More than 30 police cruisers with lights flashing blocked an entrance, with multiple ambulances on the scene in the city of roughly 105,000 residents about 40 kilometresnorth of downtown Dallas.

Video shared on social media showed people running through a parking lot amid the sound of gunshots.

Fontayne Payton, 35, was at H&M when he heard the sound of gunshots through his headphones.

"It was so loud, it sounded like it was right outside," Payton said.

People in the store scattered before employees ushered the group into the fitting rooms and then a lockable back room, he said. When they were given the all-clear to leave, Payton saw the store had broken windows and a trail of blood to the door. Discarded sandals and bloodied clothes werenearby.

'It broke me'

Once outside, Payton saw bodies.

"I pray it wasn't kids, but it looked like kids," he said. The bodies were covered in white towels, slumped over bags on the ground.

"It broke me when I walked out to see that," he said.

Tarakram Nunna, 25, and Ramakrishna Mullapudi, 26, said they saw what appeared to be three people motionless on the ground, including one who appeared to be a police officer and another who seemedto be a mall security guard.

Another shopper, Sharkie Mouli, 24, said he hid in a Banana Republic during the shooting. As he left, he saw what appeared to be an unconscious police officer lying next to another unconscious person outside the outlet store.

"I have seen his gun lying right next to him and a guy who is like passing out right next to him," Mouli said.

Survivors recount shooting

Stan and Mary Ann Greene were browsing in a Columbia sportswear store when the shooting started.

"We had just gotten in, just a couple minutes earlier, and we just heard a lot of loud popping," Mary Ann Greene told The Associated Press.

Employees rolled down the security gate and brought everyone to the rear of the store until police arrived and escorted them out, the Greenesaid.

Eber Romero was at an Under Armour store when a cashier mentioned there was a shooting.

As he left, Romero said, the mall appeared empty and all the shops had their security gates down. That is when he started seeing broken glass and victims of the shooting on the floor of the shopping centre.