Sunday, a man with a rifle opened fire in a food court at an Indiana mall, killing three people and hurting two others.
The man went into the Greenwood Park Mall in the city of Greenwood, which is just south of Indianapolis, with a rifle and several magazines of bullets and started shooting in the food court, said Greenwood Police Department Chief Jim Ison at a news conference on Sunday.
The gunman was then shot and killed by an armed citizen, who police said was a 22-year-old man from nearby Bartholomew County. Authorities were still trying to figure out who the shooter was and why he or she did it.
In a post on Facebook, Mayor Mark W. Myers said, “Someone we’re calling the ‘Good Samaritan’ was able to shoot the attacker and stop more bloodshed.” “Tonight, this person saved lives. I’m grateful to him for acting quickly and being a hero on behalf of the City of Greenwood.”
The Johnson County Coroner’s Office said Sunday that two people died at the scene and two others were pronounced dead at the hospital.
Chief Ison said that four of the people who were shot at were women and one was a man. He said that he didn’t know right away who was killed or how old they were.
He said that one of the two people who were hurt was a 12-year-old girl and that both of them were in stable condition. “As you might guess, this is a terrible situation,” Chief Ison said. “It has shook us to the core.” Chief Ison said that the person who shot and killed the gunman was allowed to have a gun on him.
The company that runs the mall, Simon Property Group, said on its website that guns are not allowed in its shopping centers. Greenwood Park Mall said in a statement on Monday that it was sorry for the people who were shot. “We are grateful for the quick response of the first responders, including the heroic actions of the Good Samaritan who stopped the suspect,” the statement said.
Indiana’s gun laws got less strict in March when Gov. Eric Holcomb signed a bill that lets people carry guns without a permit. Some local police departments and the Indiana State Police were against the change because they said it would make it harder to catch people who shouldn’t be carrying guns.
Since the law went into effect this month, most adults who have never been convicted of a crime can carry a handgun without a permit. The shooting adds to the number of people killed by guns in the U.S. in 2022. In recent months, schools, churches, grocery stores, and even a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Ill., have been attacked.
In May, 19 students and two adults were killed at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. This led to a renewed debate about the ability of the country’s political system to deal with the rising gun violence. This led to a bipartisan effort in Congress to pass the broadest gun laws in decades.
“Pray for the victims and our first responders,” Mr. Myers said. Sunday night, Mr. Holcomb wrote on Twitter that he was keeping an eye on the investigation into the shooting.
“Now and in the days and weeks to come,” he wrote, “I’ll be thinking about all the people hurt in this terrible event.”
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