Police fatally shoot man who drove truck into Texas mall, injuring 5
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The man drove through the mall in Killeen, Texas, and hit multiple people, five of whom had injuries that ranged from minor to severe.
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TEXAS - Five people were injured on Dec 21 after a man drove his pick-up truck through the glass doors of a JCPenney outlet in a mall in Killeen, Texas, and continued to drive through the store before he was shot and killed by police, the authorities said.
At about 5pm local time, the driver, whose identity was not released, was in a black pick-up truck when officers tried to stop him for possible drink driving, said Sergeant Bryan Washko from the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Instead of stopping, the driver got off the highway, drove to the parking lot of the Killeen Mall and smashed his vehicle through the doors of the JCPenney store, he said.
The authorities described a chaotic scene. After the driver breached the glass doors, Sgt Washko said, he continued driving for several hundred metres, running over people who were shopping on the weekend before Christmas, he said.
The police followed the driver through the mall on foot before shooting him, he added.
The driver hit multiple people, five of whom had injuries ranging from minor to severe. The injured are six to 75 years old, he said.
“Not a good day here in Killeen, Texas,” Sgt Washko said, but added that “it could have been so much worse; this mall is pretty busy this time of year”.
The Saturday before Christmas, nicknamed Super Saturday, was expected to be the second-busiest shopping day of this holiday season, according to Sensormatic Solutions.
The episode in Killeen, a city of about 160,000 people 112km north of Austin, was originally reported as a shooting, but only the driver was shot, Sgt Washko said. NYTIMES
