According to a press release from the Allen (Texas) Police Department, detectives have determined that Steven Spainhouer, who gave multiple public accounts of his actions following the shooting at the outlet mall, is “not a credible incident witness” after “discrepancies” with his statements were found. Read the full press release here for more information.
https://nypost.com/2023/05/07/cop-made-frantic-call-for-backup-before-taking-down-texas-shooter/
By Bill Carey
Police1 Staff
ALLEN, Texas — The officer who responded to the active shooter incident at the Allen outlet mall made an urgent call for backup before he fatally shot the gunman.
Initial audio from the deadly shooting outside an H&M store at the Allen Premium Outlets on Saturday has been released, the New York Post reported.
“I’ve got people running. There’s still shooting,” the unidentified officer said. “I need everybody I got.”
About two minutes later, the officer successfully stopped the gunman, reporting: “I got him down,” according to the audio obtained by the Daily Mail.
As shoppers ran for safety, Steven Spainhouer, a former police officer, was nearby and rushed to the scene. Spainhouer’s son works at the H&M store at the outlet mall and called him when he couldn’t get through to 911, NBC DFW reported.
Spainhouer recounted finding a girl near bushes in a praying position and reached down to check her pulse. When he turned her over, “she had no face,” he said.
“I found a 4-year-old under a lady, got the 4-year-old, 5-year-old, around the corner. He said he was OK, he was covered in blood from head to toe,” he said. “There wasn’t anything I could do.”
The gunman in the outlet mall shooting has been identified as 33-year-old Mauricio Garcia, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety, which is conducting the investigation. WFAA reported that law enforcement sources added that Garcia espoused an extremist right-wing ideology and disliked people of color and of Jewish religion.
FBI agents and Dallas police searched a home in the northeast patrol division of Dallas, where multiple sources said Garcia lived with his parents. Federal agents will go through all of Garcia’s belongings, computers, phones and anything else they can find to determine a possible motive in the shooting.
The Dallas Police Department’s computers are still down after the city’s system was attacked by ransomware, which complicated getting information on prior calls to the home.
EARLIER: ‘We started running': 8 killed, 7 wounded in Texas outlet mall shooting