Cops arrest two suspects in El Paso mall shooting that left one dead

Two male suspects were brought into custody after one person was killed and three were injured in a shooting at a mall in El Paso on Wednesday night. Police responded to reports of shots fired at the Cielo Vista Mall at around 5.05pm, said interim El Paso Police Chief Peter Pacillas. An off-duty officer arrived at the scene ‘within three minutes’ and brought the first suspect into custody without firing a weapon. Police officials said that officer had been working as security in the mall and acted ‘in a very quick amount of time.’ 

Police did not release information as to how and when the second suspect was arrested. ‘It was chaotic. People did flee. They were scared,’ El Paso Police Sgt. Robert Gomez said. One unidentified man was pronounced dead at the scene and two male victims were taken to University Medical Center in critical condition, the hospital told CNN. A third male victim was taken to the Del Sol Medical center and said to be in fair condition. The Cielo Vista Mall is right next to a Walmart Supercenter where in 2019 23 people were killed and a further 22 were injured in another shooting. Last week Patrick Crusius, now 24, plead guilty to the racially motivated killings, which were intended to ‘target Mexicans.’ 

Video uploaded to Twitter shows people running through the mall as police descended upon the scene. Police said there were initial indications that the shooting happened in the mall’s food court. Other footage appeared to show police tending to somebody inside the mall (pictured). In another video a man in the parking lot kneeled with his arms raised as he was brought into custody. Police said during a conference on Wednesday night that it was too early to comment as to a motive. 

‘Police are responding to shots fired in the food court of Cielo Vista Mall, scene still active. Avoid the area,’ tweeted El Paso police at 6.19pm. In the hours after the shooting police said they were working to clear the mall. At 9.20pm they were still asking people to remain away from the area. Robert Gonzalez was in the mall and told CNN he ‘saw people running to the exit.’

Local FBI agents were helping to gather information relating to the investigation. The incident at the El Paso mall on Wednesday was the 73rd mass shooting to have taken place in the U.S. this year, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive. 

Texas Governor Greg Abbott said he has been speaking with the mayor of El Paso. ‘I spoke to Mayor Leeser about the shooting tonight in El Paso,’ he 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.’

The incident on Wednesday night happened just a few hundred meters from the site of the 2019 Walmart shooting.’It just brought back bad memories,’ Gonzalez told CNN. Crusius, 21 at the time, was charged with capital murder after opening fire inside the Walmart with an AK-47. He was taken into custody about a quarter of a mile from the attack after he got off a motorcycle and surrendered.

Just 20 minutes before the massacre, Crusius had posted a white supremacist manifesto online saying the shooting was in response to an ‘invasion’ of Hispanics coming across the southern border. Titled ‘The Inconvenient Truth,’ it railed against the dangers of mass immigration and warned that Hispanics will eventually take over the economy and government. 

Police officers gather at an entrance to Cielo Vista Mall as they respond to reports of the shooting.

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