El Paso shooting: ‘Random incident’ between two groups of men led to Cielo Vista Mall shooting

A former Trump administration official has said that her aunt was hiding from the El Paso gunman after surviving the 2019 massacre in the same area.

Olivia Troye was the Homeland Security and Counterterrorism adviser to former Vice President Mike Pence before resigning in August 2020.

“My aunt is currently in hiding at Cielo Vista Mall in El Paso, TX, as this active shooter scenario is still unfolding,” Ms Troye wrote at 8.22pm on Wednesday night. “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?!”

“My aunt is now safe and out of Cielo Vista Mall,” she added at 9.28pm. “Thank you once again to the amazing stranger who pulled her to safety once again this time around. Heartbroken for my hometown of El Paso, the victims and their families.”

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Shopping mall workers who survived the 2019 Walmart massacre have described their horror at finding themselves in the midst of the latest mass shooting to rock El Paso, Texas.

One victim was killed and three others hospitalised when gunfire erupted inside the Cielo Vista Mall on Wednesday.

Two male suspects have now been taken into custody with the motive still unknown.

The Cielo Vista Mall is directly adjacent to the Walmart store where a lone gunman murdered 23 people in a racist attack back in August 2019.

Several of the same local residents and workers who survived that day three years ago were at the mall on Wednesday, living through their second mass shooting in the space of less than four years.

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There were 647 mass shootings in the US last year, according to the gun violence archive.

There have been 72 so far this year.

At least 5,442 people have died in 2023 from gun violence as of 16 February and 4,033 people have been injured.

Of the deaths, 3,102 were suicides.

The number of mass shootings has seen a steady increase since 2014, when there were 269 mass shootings, compared to 2020 when that number has risen to 611, the archive notes.

One man has been killed and another three men wounded in a mass shooting in a shopping mall in El Paso, Texas, sparking renewed terror in a local community still scarred from the last massacre three years ago.

Two suspects – both male – are now in police custody over the incident that unfolded at Cielo Vista Mall on Wednesday late afternoon.

All four victims are males with two of the survivors still in critical condition in hospital.

The shooting has brought back “bad memories” for the El Paso community, with Cielo Vista Mall being located directly adjacent to the Walmart store where 23 people were killed in a racially-motivated mass shooting back in August 2019.

This latest massacre also comes at a time when America is facing a surge in mass shootings – and with it, growing calls for tighter gun control to prevent more communities from being torn apart by gun violence.

Here’s what we know so far about the latest mass shooting in El Paso:

CNN anchor and national security correspondent Jim Sciutto tweeted on Thursday about the possibility of new gun legislation that didn’t end up becoming law after previous mass shootings.

“I covered the 2019 El Paso shooting, which was quickly followed by the Dayton shooting. There was a blip of momentum for gun legislation then that quickly faded. And now El Paso in the news again,” he wrote.

Beto O’Rourke, the former Texas congressman and former Democratic nominee for senate, governor, and 2020 primary candidate for president, shared his outrage on Wednesday night after the shooting.

“This shooting at Cielo Vista is painful for El Paso, especially the families of those killed at the nearby Walmart in 2019. I don’t know the details yet. But what I do know is that I love this town and I will do everything I can to stop this from happening again,” he wrote.

New York Congressman Ritchie Torres shared his frustration at the repetitive nature of mass shootings on Wednesday night.

“1 person died, several were injured at the food court inside the Cielo Vista Mall in El Paso, Texas. The mall is next to the Walmart store where a gunman killed 23 people in Aug 2019. I’m damn tired of having to see people running for their lives almost daily in public places,” he tweeted.

Connecticut Democratic Senator Chris Murphy is once again trying to put legislative action on the table after Wednesday night’s mass shooting in El Paso and the shooting at Michigan State University earlier this week.

Mr Murphy, who has been a high-profile advocate of gun control since the 2012 school shooting in Newtown in his state, is set to re-introduce legislation on expanding background checks on the sale and transfer of all guns, with some limited exceptions.

The bill has 47 cosponsors in the Senate and in the House, California Democrat Mike Thompson and Pennsylvania Republican Brian Fitzpatrick have introduced a version of the bill, according to Politico.

The fresh attempt comes within a year of the passing of the first gun safety legislation in decades, but it didn’t reach Democratic goals of universal background checks.