El Paso killings – latest: Second suspect in custody after one dead and three wounded in shooting

A second person has been taken into custody following a shooting at a shopping mall in El Paso that left one dead and three others wounded.

Interim police chief Peter Pacillas said that Cielo Vista Mall was still considered a crime scene, and that it would remain locked down until authorities had completed their investigation.

He stressed that the danger had passed.

“There is no more danger. I want to repeat that: There is no more danger to the public,” Mr Pacillas said.

The two people in custody and as well as the victims are males, he added.

El Paso mayor Oscar Leeser in a statement said there is no “current threat to our community”.

“As our community faced a shooting threat this evening, our emergency responders, law enforcement officers as well as our agency partners responded immediately to the emergency situation,” he said, according to El Paso Times.

The gunman, who opened fire at the Cielo Vista Mall in El Paso killing one person, was taken down by an off-duty police officer.

The officer was working security at a store in the mall and did not fire his weapon, interim police chief Peter Pacillas said.

Member of congress Veronica Escobar in a tweet said no community deserves multiple incidents of gun violence.

“I am staying in close contact with local officials who are dealing with a shooting in the same area where 23 lives were taken by a mass shooting three years ago,” she said in a tweet.

Two of the three people wounded in the shooting at a mall in El Paso, Texas, remain critical.

University Medical Center in El Paso said in a statement that two male gunshot victims were being treated there.

The condition of the third victim was not immediately known.

El Paso police are looking for another person who could have been involved in the shooting incident, spokesperson Sgt Robert Gomez said without providing further details.

He said a weapon was recovered at the scene.“It’s too early to speculate on motive,” he added.

Mr Gomez said police believe the scene is secure and that officers are sweeping through the whole mall to verify that.

“This is a large scene. It’s going to take some time to clear the mall.”

Olivia Troye, a national security official, who worked for former vice president Mike Pence, said that her aunt was hiding in the mall during the shooting.

“My aunt is currently in hiding at Cielo Vista Mall in El Paso, TX, as this active shooter scenario is still unfolding,” she tweeted.

Her aunt was one of the survivors of the 2019 Wal-Mart El Paso shooting, she said, asking: “What is it going to take to enact change.”

In a separate tweet, Ms Troye said her aunt has now been brought out of the mall safely.

Texas governor Greg Abbott said he has spoken to mayor Oscar Leeser and offered the state’s full support following the shooting at a mall in El Paso.

“Thank you to all law enforcement and first responders who quickly went into action to protect their fellow Texans,” he wrote on Twitter.

Wednesday’s 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.

Law enforcement in El Paso have set up a reception center for families at a local high school and are urging family members to go there if they cannot make contact with a loved one.

The reception center is located in the main gymnasium at Burges High School, which is less than a mile away from the Cielo Vista Mall where the shooting took place.

Just last year, the high school dedicated a day to teaching its students about the 2019 shooting that claimed 23 lives at a nearby Walmart. KFOX-TV has more on that story.