Cop Handing Out Stickers Chased, Killed a Mass Shooter

Body camera footage from Texas mall shooting is released
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 29, 2023 10:30 AM CDT

A police officer in Allen, Texas, was having a friendly chat with a mother and her two children, to whom he'd given stickers, when gunshots erupted a short distance away at Allen Premium Outlets on May 6. As a newly released body camera video shows, that officer immediately grabbed a rifle from his vehicle and ran toward the sounds, as he yelled for others to run for safety. "I believe we've got a mass shooter," he said into his radio less than two minutes later, noting he was passing injured people and "a magazine on the ground" while tracing the gunfire. "I'm moving as fast as I can to try to get over there," added the officer, now panting.

He opened fire on the gunman about three minutes after the first shots, as other officers arrived on scene. "Shots fired by police, I got him down," he said half a minute later, after firing about a dozen shots. Another officer confirmed the shooter was down about five minutes after the first shots. The five-and-a-half-minute video—edited to remove foul language and blur bystanders and victims—was released two days after a Collin County grand jury cleared the officer of wrongdoing, finding his use of force was justified. "The officer recognized the danger, ran toward the gunfire, and neutralized the threat—and for his actions, the Allen community is forever grateful," said Allen Police Chief Brian Harvey, per KXAS.

The gunman, a self-described white supremacist who'd been expelled from the Army 15 years earlier, killed eight people, including three young children and a mall security guard, using an AR-15-style rifle, per the AP. Seven others were injured in the shooting. In a bit of good news, WFAA reports the last of those injured was released from a hospital on Friday, nearly seven weeks after the shooting. "Our collective hope for all of those affected is for physical and emotional healing," said Allen Harrison, president of Medical City Healthcare, whose facilities received eight victims in total. (More Texas mass shooting stories.)

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