Amid threats of rising gun violence in the U.S. at least nine people were injured at a shopping mall in Houston when a gunman opened fire, according to NBC News. The incident took place at 6:30 a.m. on Sept. 26, 2016 raising a high degree of alert among residents at apartment complexes as local residents, especially those within a block of the shootings, were asked by the police department to shelter in place some two hours after the initial reports of shootings.
Several people were hit by fragments of glass from shattered car windows. Of the nine that were injured, six of them were taken to area hospitals while three of them were treated onsite. Approximately 15 EMS crews were immediately dispatched to 911 calls of a shooter in the neighborhood, fire department spokesperson Jay Evans told NBC News.
The shooter used two semi-automati weapons, a .45 caliber pistol, and a “Thommy Gun” style rifle. He also carried a knife, and several thoudands of rounds of Amunition were discovered in the vehicle in which he arrived.
Houston police chief, Martha Montalvo told Fox News that police shot the suspect who had started ‘“firing actively” at officers once they had located him. The shooter was a lawyer by profession and lived in a condominuium complex near the scene of the shooting. No apparent motive has yet been determined but further investigation revealed that there were reportedly issues between the shooter and his law firm. Based on further reports by Fox News, Montalvo is yet to confirm if this incident was, in fact, an act of terrorism, with possible ties to ISIS.
Although no other shooters were reported, several weapons were found at the scene. The suspect’s Porsche was being examined in the hours after the shooting. According to ABC News, the Porsche in question was liscensed to a Nathan DeSai, although Houston Law enforcement has not officially confirmed that DeSai was the shooter. DeSai’s residence is also being examined, and while several firearms have been discovered, they have all so far been replicas of historical firearms from the Civil War Era.
The shooting comes only a few days after a similar shooting in a Washington State Mall that left five people dead. On Sept. 17, 2016, a 20-year-old man brutally stabbed 10 people at a Minnesota mall before he was shot to death by an off-duty police officer, according to reports by the Chicago Tribune. Closer to home, Michigan Tech environmental engineering graduate student Mansa Erra expressed her concerns when she told the Lode that, “Gun laws in the US need to be changed. The [August] notification from MTU Alert about a faculty receiving threatening email scared me beyond measure.”
