Nine people are dead and several others are injured after a gunman pulled up to an outlet mall in a Dallas suburb on Saturday afternoon and opened fire on shoppers, leaving a trail of carnage and sending families fleeing for their lives.
Police say children are among the victims of the rampage at the Allen Premium Outlets in Allen, about 25 miles from Dallas. At a late-night press conference, officials confirmed that seven victims were found dead at the scene, while two others of the nine rushed to hospitals succumbed to their injuries.
“We believe at this point that the shooter acted alone,” Allen Police Chief Brian Harvey said. An officer who was in the area on an unrelated call responded after hearing gunshots and “neutralized the shooter,” he said.
No further details were immediately available on the suspect or a possible motive.
Gunfire erupted at the mall at around 3:40 p.m., sending shoppers fleeing for the exits and racing out of the area amid a hail of bullets. Harrowing dash-cam footage apparently filmed by someone within the parking lot at the time of the shooting showed a man pull up in a silver vehicle before getting out and appearing to fire at random at people on the sidewalk. Witnesses said the man appeared to be wearing tactical gear.
“He pretty much was walking down the sidewalk and … was just shooting his gun everywhere for the most part,” a witness told CNN of the unidentified gunman.
Dyshaun and Shell’a McDaniel told The Daily Beast they were getting into their car with their kids after a shopping trip when they first heard gunshots, but they didn’t realize what had happened until they stopped at a gas station across the street to get ice cream.
“Next thing you know … we see people flooding over there, screaming, and the police rushing over to the scene,” Dyshaun said. “We, like, literally just left the scene … where the person was shooting.”
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Emergency personnel work the scene of a shooting at Allen Premium Outlets on May 6, 2023 in Allen, Texas.
Stewart F. House/Getty
Shell’a said she was trapped in the gas station for 10 minutes after other survivors began streaming in and the owners locked the front doors.
“One couple … came in and they had all their clothes and everything,” Shell’a said. “[One woman] was completely shaken up, and she was screaming, like, ‘Active shooter! Active shooter!’”
The couple told Shell’a they had run out of the store where they had been shopping when they began to hear gunshots, ignoring employees who had tried to get them to stay inside.
Dyshaun called the experience “surreal,” but said he has been telling his children to “stay alert” in preparation for a moment like this.
“It’s more … heartbreaking that you even have to have a conversation like this, you know, and then they get the realization that everything dad’s been telling us is true,” Dyshaun said.
Abu Akther, who was with his wife and 1-year-old child at the mall, described “mayhem and panic” as people scrambled to hide inside stores.
Akther told Fox 4 DFW he’d tried to help a woman who’d been shot in the side, ushering her into a store for shelter.
“That’s when she said, ‘I don’t know why I am shot. What is going on?’ And I saw blood pouring out of her stomach,” he was quoted saying, adding that he then “heard at least 30 gunshots in rapid concession.”
U.S. Rep. Keith Self issued a statement on Twitter saying, “A shooter is down and there are multiple casualties.” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a statement calling the shooting an “unspeakable tragedy,” and adding that “our hearts are with the people of Allen, Texas.”
Aerial footage from the scene showed what appeared to be at least four bodies covered by tarps outside the mall, while other pictures captured people being evacuated.
A man named Joseph Adams who was shopping with his 12-year-old son told the Dallas Morning News he initially thought a “car had driven through the front of the building” when the gunshots rang out.
“That’s how loud it was,” he said.
After fleeing, he said, he drove past and saw at least four people lying on the sidewalk. He tried to help those wounded, including a child shot in the neck.
“People were yelling for help, for ambulances, as cops drove by looking for the shooter. It was just chaos. I did everything I could think of to help, and as a teacher, all I want to do is help kids, but it’s horrible to think it was at the risk of my own kid seeing it.”
Fontayne Payton told the Associated Press he’d sheltered inside a store and then walked outside after the all-clear was given to see several bodies on the ground.
“I pray it wasn’t kids, but it looked like kids,” he said. “It broke me when I walked out to see that.”
