This is KILLEEN, Texas. According to the authorities, a pickup truck driver who was attempting to elude law enforcement officers crashed through the doors of a JCPenney store in Texas and continued through a busy shopping mall, causing five individuals to sustain injuries before being fatally shot by officers.
Sgt. Bryan Washko of the Texas Department of Public Safety stated in an evening news briefing that the truck collided with the department store in Killeen, which is located approximately 68 miles (109 kilometers) north of Austin, the capital of the state, at approximately 5:30 p.m. on Saturday. The truck continued into the building, striking people as it went.
Four people were transported from the shopping center to hospitals in the surrounding region by emergency medical services, while another victim was transported to a hospital on their own. He stated that the circumstances of the individuals, whose ages ranged from six to seventy-five years old, were not immediately known.
According to Ofelia Miramontez, a member of the Killeen Police Department, the pursuit started at approximately five o’clock in the afternoon on Interstate 14 near Belton, which is approximately twenty miles (30 kilometers) away from Killeen. The authorities had received complaints about an erratic driver who was driving a black pickup truck.
After that, the driver pulled over to the side of the road and drove into the parking lot of the shopping center.
“The suspect drove through the doors and continued to drive through the JCPenney store, striking multiple people,” Washko said. “The suspect was responsible for the incident.” “The trooper and the officer from Killeen continued on foot after this vehicle, which was driving through the store and actively running people over,” the statement read. A few hundred yards was the distance he traveled.
“In order to eliminate this threat,” officers from the state public safety department, Killeen, and three other law enforcement agencies “engaged in gunfire,” according to Washko.
It was reported by him that one of the officers who engaged in gunfire with the suspect was working as a security guard at the shopping center, while the other officers were off duty.
In the time when the briefing was taking place, Washko did not have any information regarding the name of the suspect.
Outside of the shopping center, witnesses who were questioned by local news agencies stated that they heard many gunshots and observed people fleeing through the shopping center.
Source: Police Murdered a Pickup Truck Driver After He Drove Into a Texas Mall and Injured Five People