One person was killed and three others were wounded following a shooting at a shopping mall in El Paso, Texas on Wednesday evening.
Police in the West Texas city said hours after the gunfire that two people had been taken into custody, though the motive behind the shooting remained unclear.
Interim police chief Peter Pacillas said Cielo Vista Mall was still considered a crime scene and would remain locked down until the end of the investigation. He stressed that the danger has passed.
“There is no more danger. I want to repeat that: There is no more danger to the public,” Mr Pacillas said.
The Cielo Vista Mall is located in West El Paso just a half mile away from the site of a racially-motivated mass shooting in 2019 that killed 23 people and left 22 more injured.
Law enforcement officers were called to the mall just after 5pm in response to reports of a shooting in the mall’s food court and Dillard’s Department Store.
“During this incident, it was chaotic,” Sgt Robert Gomez said. “People did flee. They were scared. There was shots fired in the mall, it does cause panic.”
The gunman was taken down quickly by an off-duty police officer working security at a store in the mall, Mr Pacillas said, adding that the officer did not fire his weapon.
The victims, all male, were rushed to hospitals, where two of them remain critical.
University Medical Center in El Paso said two gunshot victims were being treated there, while a third victim was taken to the Del Sol Medical Center and was in a stable condition.
A family reception centre has been set up in the main gymnasium at nearby Burges High School, which is where family members have been directed to go if they have been unable to make contact with a loved one.
Olivia Troye, a national security official who worked for former vice president Mike Pence, tweeted that her aunt was hiding in the mall during the shooting.
“My aunt is currently in hiding at Cielo Vista Mall in El Paso, TX, as this active shooter scenario is still unfolding,” She survived the 2019 Wal-Mart El Paso shooting thanks to someone who pulled her to safety. What is it going to take to enact change?!”
Texas governor Greg Abbott in a tweet said he spoke to El Paso mayor Oscar Leeser about the shooting and offered full support of the state of Texas.
Member of congress Veronica Escobar responded to the governor saying: “How about gun violence prevention legislation for our community’s security?”
“You promised you would take action after the August 3rd shooting and you’ve done nothing but loosen gun laws. The legislature is in session. Be a man of your word for once and do something!”
The shooting is a traumatic reminder of the mass shooting at Walmart in 2019, which was the deadliest attack on Latinos in recent US history.
The perpetrator of the shooting, Patrick Wood Crusius, legally purchased a semiautomatic rifle and a thousand rounds of ammunition in June before driving from his home in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area to El Paso to commit the attack.
Crusius, a white nationalist, said that he targeted “Mexicans” during the shooting. He just plead guilty to 90 murder and hate crime charges in federal court last week and is awaiting sentencing.
