US President Joe Biden on Sunday renewed his call for a national ban on assault weapons and other gun safety measures, a day after eight people were murdered at a Texas shopping mall in the latest mass shooting to shake the nation.
Responders, witnesses and police described scenes of panic and horror in Allen, where video footage shared online showed a man exiting a sedan in an outlet mall parking lot on Saturday and firing a semi-automatic rifle at people walking past.
An officer on an unrelated call nearby quickly responded and “neutralized” the shooter, police said.
Photo: AFP
Seven people were pronounced dead at the scene, including the alleged shooter, while two others died in the hospital, authorities said.
Three people were in critical condition as of Sunday morning, the Allen Police Department said.
The Texas Department of Public Safety identified the suspected shooter as Mauricio Garcia, a 33-year-old from Dallas, in a statement on Sunday evening.
While the statement did not offer further details about Garcia’s background or motive, multiple US media outlets said investigators were probing his social media posts, which allegedly showed an interest in radical right-wing ideology, including white supremacy and neo-Nazism.
“Eight Americans — including children — were killed yesterday in the latest act of gun violence to devastate our nation,” Biden said in a statement on Sunday.
He ordered US flags to be lowered to half-staff “as a mark of respect for the victims” and repeated his call for lawmakers to take action against a gun “epidemic.”
“Once again, I ask [the US] Congress to send me a bill banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines,” Biden said.
He also demanded that lawmakers require universal background checks for gun purchases and end legal immunity for manufacturers’ whose weapons are used in attacks.
“I will sign it immediately. We need nothing less to keep our streets safe,” Biden said.
The attack is the latest in an alarming trajectory of deadly US gun violence. Barely a week earlier, a man shot and killed five neighbors in Cleveland, Texas after one of them asked him to stop firing his rifle in his yard at night while a baby slept.
Awash in firearms, the US has already had 199 mass shootings this year, sayd the Gun Violence Archive, a non-governmental organization that defines a mass shooting as four or more people wounded or killed.
“Too many families have empty chairs at their dinner tables,” Biden said, as he berated his political opponents for inaction.
“Republican members of Congress cannot continue to meet this epidemic with a shrug,” he said. “Tweeted thoughts and prayers are not enough.”
The shooting at Allen Premium Outlets, 56km north of Dallas, erupted on Saturday afternoon when it was busy with weekend shoppers, police said.
Officer in the mall “heard gunshots, went to the gunshots, engaged the suspect and neutralized the suspect,” Allen Police Department Chief Brian Harvey said.
Biden joined local officials in hailing the quick actions of police for likely saving lives.
The police chief later said authorities believe the unidentified shooter “acted alone.”
CNN showed a cropped photograph of the apparent shooter dead on the ground, wearing tactical gear with extra magazines, and with an AR-15-style rifle at his side.
Earlier in the day, the Republican had called the shooting an “unspeakable tragedy,” and refused to discuss repeated demands by Democrats for tightened gun restrictions.
“People want a quick solution. The long-term solution is to address the mental health issue” including the increased “anger and violence” in the US, Abbott told Fox News.
Steven Spainhouer, a former police officer, said he was confronted with horrific images when he rushed to the scene and performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on victims before emergency responders arrived.
Finding one female victim on the ground, “I felt for her pulse, pulled her head to the side and she had no face,” Spainhouer told CBS News.
He found the son of another victim lying alive under his dead mother and “covered head to toe” in her blood.
“It’s just unfathomable to see the carnage,” he said.
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