Mall shooter kills three before being shot dead

WASHINGTON－A gunman killed three people when he opened fire in the food court of a shopping mall outside Indianapolis on Sunday before a bystander fatally shot the assailant, Greenwood Police chief Jim Ison said.

The shooting happened in the food court of Greenwood Park Mall south of Indianapolis around 6 pm local time. An adult male carrying a rifle and several magazines of ammunition walked into the food court and began shooting.

Police believe an armed bystander killed the gunman at the scene.

Two other people were injured in the incident, which took place in the early evening at the mall, the Indianapolis Star reported.

Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department assistant chief Christopher Bailey said there was "no immediate public safety concern" for people in the area, local media reported.

"The real hero of the day is the citizen that was lawfully carrying a firearm in that food court and was able to stop the shooter almost as soon as he began," Ison told reporters, describing the armed bystander as a 22-year-old man.

Built in 1965, Greenwood Park Mall is the second-largest indoor shopping center in Indiana with about 150 tenants.

Shootings happen frequently in the US. The Gun Violence Archive database lists 320 mass shootings across the country since the beginning of this year, with roughly 22,500 deaths caused by gun violence.

Spate of incidents

That incident followed two massacres in May that saw 10 black people shot dead at an upstate New York supermarket, and 19 children and two teachers slain at an elementary school in Texas.

In a report released on Sunday, investigators detailed "systemic failures" of the Uvalde elementary school massacre in Texas.

The nearly 80-page report was the first to criticize both state and federal law enforcement, and not just local authorities, in the South Texas town for the bewildering inaction by heavily armed officers as a gunman fired inside a fourth-grade classroom.

Nearly 400 law enforcement officials rushed to the school, but created a chaotic scene that lasted more than an hour before the gunman was finally confronted and killed.

The recent surge in gun violence has reignited divisive debate over firearms regulation. A US House of Representatives committee is set to discuss a bill this week that would ban assault weapons for the first time in nearly 20 years.

Agencies - Xinhua