<div style="text-align: justify; "><b style="font-size: 1rem;">Police say a shooting at a Dallas-area mall left 9 dead and others injured.</b><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A gunman stepped out of a silver sedan and began shooting people at an outlet mall in Allen, Texas, on Saturday, sending hundreds of shoppers fleeing in panic in the latest gun violence to strike the country.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Witnesses who were at the Allen Premium Outlets told The Associated Press they saw multiple victims, including some who appeared to be children, and that they saw a police officer and a mall security guard who appeared to be unconscious on the ground.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A gunman stepped out of a silver sedan and began shooting people at an outlet mall in the Dallas suburb of Allen, Texas, on Saturday, killing an unknown number and sending hundreds of shoppers fleeing in panic in the latest gun violence to strike the country.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Witnesses who were at the Allen Premium Outlets told The Associated Press they saw multiple victims, including some who appeared to be children, and that they saw a police officer and a mall security guard who appeared to be unconscious on the ground.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Allen police said in a Facebook post that nine victims had been taken to hospitals. Medical City Healthcare, a Dallas-area hospital system, said in a written statement it was treating eight between the ages of 5 and 61. Their conditions were unknown.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Dashcam video that circulated online showed a gunman step out of a vehicle outside the mall and immediately start shooting at people on the sidewalk. More than three dozen shots could be heard as the vehicle recording the video drove off.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">An Allen Police officer was in the area on an unrelated call when he heard shots at 3:36 p.m., the police department wrote on Facebook.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“The officer engaged the suspect and neutralized the threat. He then called for emergency personnel. Nine victims were transported to local hospitals by Allen Fire Department,” the agency wrote in the Facebook post. “There is no longer an active threat.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mass killings are happening with staggering frequency in the United States this year: an average of about one a week, according to an analysis of The AP/USA Today data.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The White House said President Biden had been briefed on the shooting and that the administration had offered support to local officials. Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has signed laws easing firearms restrictions following past mass shootings, called it an “unspeakable tragedy.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A crowd of hundreds of people who had been shopping stood outside, across the street from the mall, Saturday evening. Officers circulated among them asking if anyone had seen what happened.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Fontayne Payton, 35, was at H&amp;M when he heard the sound of gunshots through the headphones he was wearing.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“It was so loud, it sounded like it was right outside,” Payton said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">People in the store scattered before employees ushered the group into the fitting rooms and then a lockable back room, he said. When they were given the all-clear to leave, Payton saw the store had broken windows and a trail of blood to the door. Discarded sandals and bloodied clothes were laying nearby.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Once outside, Payton saw bodies.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“I pray it wasn’t kids, but it looked like kids,” he said. The bodies were covered in white towels, slumped over bags on the ground, he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“It broke me when I walked out to see that,” he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Further away, he saw the body of a heavyset man wearing all black. He assumed it was the shooter, Payton said, because unlike the other bodies it had not been covered up.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Tarakram Nunna, 25, and Ramakrishna Mullapudi, 26, said they saw what appeared to be three people lying motionless on the ground, including one who appeared to be a police officer and another who appeared to be a mall security guard.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Another shopper, Sharkie Mouli, 24, said he hid in a Banana Republic store during the shooting. As he left, he saw what appeared to be an unconscious police officer lying next to another unconscious person outside the outlet store.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“I have seen his gun lying right next to him and a guy who is like passing out right next to him,” Mouli said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Stan and Mary Ann Greene were browsing in the Columbia sportswear store when the shooting started.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“We had just gotten in, just a couple minutes earlier, and we just heard a lot of loud popping,” Mary Ann Greene told The Associated Press.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Employees immediately rolled down the security gate and brought everyone to the rear of the store until police arrived and escorted them out, the Greenes said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Eber Romero was at the Under Armour store when a cashier mentioned that there was a shooting.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As he left the store, Romero said, the mall appeared empty, and all the shops had their security gates down. That is when he started seeing broken glass and people who had been shot on the floor.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Video shared on social media showed people running through a parking lot while gunfire could be heard.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Read more: Teenage boy kills 8 children, guard at school in Belgrade</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">More than 30 police cruisers with lights flashing were blocking an entrance to the mall, with multiple ambulances on the scene.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A live aerial broadcast from the news station showed armored trucks and other law enforcement vehicles stationed outside the sprawling outdoor mall.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ambulances from several neighboring cities responded to the scene.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Dallas office of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also responded.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Allen, a suburb about 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of downtown Dallas, has roughly 105,000 residents. AP/UNB</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>