A civilian used his legally licensed gun to shoot and wound a suspect in El Paso mall shooting in Texas, which left one dead and three injured earlier this week, police said.
Emanuel Duran, 32, shot a 16-year-old who is believed to have carried out the El Paso mall shooting at the Cielo Vista Mall, spurring chaos and sending many patrons running in panic Wednesday evening, El Paso Police said in a statement Friday night, according to CNN.
“As soon as the shooting ended, the 16-year-old suspect began to run and was pointing the gun towards the direction of bystanders,” police said. “As the suspect ran towards Duran and bystanders, Duran drew his handgun and shot the suspect.”
Following the El Paso mall shooting, an off-duty police officer who was working security at a nearby store took the suspect into custody, officials said. The officer also helped in providing aid to the 16-year-old suspect, who was in stable condition Friday, police said.
The suspect has not been named because he is a minor, police said. The handgun the suspect used was reported stolen, police Sgt. Robert Gomez told reporters Friday night.
Charges against the suspect are pending as the investigation remains underway, police said, describing the shooting as a confrontation between two groups that escalated
Angeles Zaragoza, 17, was killed in the shooting. Another 17-year-old and a 20-year-old who were injured have not been named publicly. The third injured person was a male, police said.
The El Paso mall shooting came as the US recorded more than 70 mass shootings so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. Both CNN and the archive define a “mass shooting” as a shooting that killed or wounded four or more people, not including the shooter.
The mall is adjacent to a Walmart where a shooting in 2019 killed 23 and left nearly two dozen more injured. The 24-year-old gunman pleaded guilty to 90 federal charges last week as part of a plea deal.