The Allen Police Department released new police bodycam footage taken from the mass shooting that occurred at the Allen Premium Outlets on May 6. The shooter killed eight people, including three children, while wounding seven others. He was killed at the scene.
The video shows the officer having a jovial conversation with a woman and her two children about wearing seat belts. Suddenly, gunshots can be heard. In response, the woman moves her children to safety as the officer retrieves his rifle from his vehicle and starts running toward the area from which the gunshots were heard. He calls for backup on his way toward the place where he believed the shooter was located:
The officer then began running toward the mall, tracking the sounds of gunfire that were growing louder and louder.
As he continued moving toward the blasts, the officer yelled for people to leave the area and take cover.
About a minute and 40 seconds after the first shots were heard in the video, the officer reached the outside of the H&M where he encountered the first victims.
“I believe we’ve got a mass shooter. I’ve got a magazine on the ground. I’m passing injured,” the officer, growing breathless, could be heard saying into his radio. “I’m moving as fast as I can to try to get over there.”
About three minutes after the shooting began, the officer fired his first shots at the gunman. As the shooting subsided, the officer then continued to cautiously move toward the gunman while calling out to other officers arriving at the scene.
“I’m moving up on him … watch your fire! I got him down,” the officer said.
Five minutes after the shooting began, police at the scene confirmed they’d taken down the shooter.
The conduct of the officers in this incident is a profound contrast to what happened in Uvalde, Texas, when officers delayed responding to a gunman targeting kids at an elementary school. That individual murdered 19 students and two teachers before law enforcement finally decided to stop him.
But in this case, the officers did what was right. The officer whose bodycam footage was released can be seen responding immediately, without so much as waiting for backup before confronting the shooter. It is unfortunate that eight lives were lost. However, without the quick reaction from these officers in this shooting, the situation would have been far worse.