Police responding to active shooter in El Paso, Texas
EL PASO, Tx. (Reuters) - Multiple law enforcement agencies raced to a WalMart in El Paso, Texas on Saturday after reports of at least one active shooter, and police told the public to avoid the area.
Few details were immediately available, but the El Paso Police Department said the scene around the Cielo Vista Mall remained active.
“We have multi reports of multiple shooters ... police conducting search of a very large area,” the department wrote on Twitter.
Local police, state troopers and multiple federal agencies including Homeland Security agents and border patrol responded.
One witness said he saw at least one person inside the store with a fatal head wound, and he saw shoppers in bloodied clothes.
Other stores were also locked down as police officers cleared the mall in the east of the city, which lies on the southern U.S. border with Mexico.
Video posted on Twitter appeared to show customers at one department store being evacuated with their hands in the air.
Mass shootings are common in the United States. On Sunday, a teenage gunman killed three people at a food festival in Northern California before fatally shooting himself.
Reporting by Julio-Cesar Chavez in El Paso; Writing by Daniel Wallis; Editing by Cynthia Osterman
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