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

Gunfire erupted at around 5pm on Wednesday in the food court of the Cielo Vista Mall, causing terrified shoppers and workers to flee and barricade themselves inside stores.

“During this incident, it was chaotic,” El Paso Sgt Robert Gomez said at a press conference.

“People did flee. They were scared. There was shots fired in the mall, it does cause panic.”

The first suspect was apprehended within minutes – by 5.08pm – by an off-duty law enforcement officer who was working security at the mall at the time.

The officer heroically responded to the gunfire and quickly subdued the gunman.

El Paso Interim Police Chief Peter Pacillas said that officers arrived at the shopping mall to find one victim – a male – dead at the scene.

Throughout Mr Abbott’s eight-year tenure as governor, Texas has been rocked by at least six other major mass shootings, according to a Texas Tribune database.

In November 2017, 26 people were murdered and another 20 wounded when a 26-year-old gunman opened fire during Sunday service at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs.

Just six months later in May 2018, a 17-year-old student killed eight classmates and two students at Santa Fe High School.

One year later in August 2019, the racist attack took place at the El Paso Walmart.

Last year, on 24 May 2022, an 18-year-old armed with a legally purchased AR-15 entered Robb Elementary School in Uvalde and murdered 19 small children and two teachers.

Mr Abbott has come under fire for his reaction to the Uvalde massacre as he has refused the requests of grieving families, the Uvalde community and state lawmakers to call a legislative session to even discuss the possibility of changing the state’s weak gun laws.

Since taking office, the Republican has relaxed gun laws in the state.

Less than one year before Uvalde, in June 2021, he signed a bill into law allowing Texans without a licence to open-carry handguns.

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.

One man was killed and three were injured in the shooting at a mall in El Paso in southern Texas on Wednesday night. A massacre took place not far from the mall just three years earlier.

Two men were detained after shots were fired at Cielo Vista Mall, police said.

“It was chaotic. People did flee. They were scared,” police Sgt Robert Gomez said, according to CNN.

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Texas has some of the most lax gun laws in the US – and a high prominence of horrific mass shootings.

The loose laws come as state lawmakers have long enjoyed a cosy relationship with the NRA.

In the last five years, the NRA has spent more than $2m lobbying Texas state lawmakers – more than double its spending in Florida, which receives the second highest amount of money, data from Open Secrets reveals.

Campaign contributions have been markedly lower with the group’s PAC channeling around $60,000 to pro-gun Republicans in the state.

Among those, Greg Abbott tops the list with $5,000 in campaign funds.

Data compiled by Giffords shows that Mr Abbott has $20,700 in career gun lobby contributions – one of the highest of all candidates in gubernatorial races.

And during his time in office, Texas has continued to loosen its already lax gun laws.

Less than one year before Uvalde, in June 2021, Mr Abbott signed a bill into law allowing Texans without a licence to open carry handguns.

Standing at his shoulder at the bill signing were NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre and NRA president Carolyn Meadows.

Mr LaPierre – who has been accused of using the group as his “personal piggy bank” – even spoke at the signing.

“In this increasingly dangerous world, people want to be able to protect themselves, and thank God Texas is leading the way for the country,” he said.

Mr Abbott has the highest possible rating of A+ from the NRA’s Political Victory Fund (NRA-PVF) and the gun PAC is endorsing him for the governor role.

On the webpage endorsing Mr Abbott, the NRA celebrates the fact that Mr Abbott has signed more than two dozen pro-gun bills into law in his role and has “tenaciously defended the Second Amendment rights of all law-abiding Texans”.

The Cielo Vista Mall shooting comes exactly one week after the gunman who killed 23 in the Walmart shooting changed his plea to guilty.

On 3 August 2019, Patrick Crusius, now 24, entered the Walmart on a busy weekend and opened fire.

He killed 23 people, including citizens of Mexico, and wounded more two dozen more in what remains one of the worst mass shootings in American history.

Prosecutors say he intentionally targeted the store in the Hispanic community due to his extremist, racist beliefs.

Before the massacre, he had posted a racist document online claiming the shooting was “in response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas”.

Last Wednesday, Crusius pleaded guilty to federal hate crime and weapons charges.

Member of congress Veronica Escobar tore into Texas governor Greg Abbott after a gunman opened fire, killing one person and injuring three others at a mall in El Paso.

“How about gun violence prevention legislation for our community’s security,” she said in a response to Mr Abbott’s tweet on the incident.

“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 which unfolded in a mall in El Paso, Texas, this week was the result of a “random incident” between two groups of men, according to investigators.

Gunfire erupted at around 5pm on Wednesday in the food court of the Cielo Vista Mall, leaving one man killed and another three men wounded. Two suspects – both male – were quickly arrested.

In a press conference on Thursday afternoon, El Paso interim Police Chief Peter Pacillas said that the shooting was not gang related but came about when two groups got into a “confrontation” and “physical altercation” in the food court.

“This is a random incident encounter between two groups. I want to emphasise this. This is a random incident that occurred between two groups at the mall,” he said.

During the altercation, one man pulled out a hangun and shots were fired.

“During that fight, Group B, one person produced a handgun, and shots were fired,” he said.

“As a result of the shooting, one member in Group A was fatally wounded and deceased at the scene.

“Two persons in Group B were wounded and are listed in stable condition at local area hospitals.”

The latest shooting in El Paso comes as the community is still in the midst of processing and trying to recover from the trauma of the 2019 mass shooting that was one of the deadliest hate crimes in recent US history.

The perpetrator of that crime, Patrick Wood Crusius, plead guilty to 90 federal murder and hate crimes charges on February 8 — just a week before this mass shooting at a site just a half mile away.

Crusius bought the semiautomatic firearm and ammunition he used in the 2019 shooting legally; since then, Texas has further loosened its gun laws even as it and states across the nation have continued to see frequent mass shootings.