Indiana Mall Mass Shooting stopped by armed bystander

Page 1 of 1 [ 6 posts ] 

ASPartOfMe
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 25 Aug 2013
Age: 66
Gender: Male
Posts: 34,237
Location: Long Island, New York

18 Jul 2022, 9:21 am

A gunman killed 3 people at an Indiana mall before he was shot dead by an armed bystander

Quote:
A shooting rampage that killed three people and injured two others at an Indiana mall ended after an armed witness shot and killed the assailant, police said.

Investigators believe the unidentified gunman, an adult man, was shot and killed by a lawfully armed 22-year-old man who "observed the shooting in progress," Ison said.

Those injured or killed include one male and four females, including a 12-year-old girl whose parents brought her to a hospital with minor injuries after the shooting, the chief said.

The second injured victim was hospitalized and in stable condition as of Sunday evening, Ison said.

The Greenwood Police Department has trained for a mass shooting scenario and has performed "multiple mall exercises" to prepare for active shooter situations, he said.

"But I'm going to tell you, the real hero of the day is the citizen that was lawfully carrying a firearm in that food court and was able to stop this shooter almost as soon as he began," Ison said.

It's rare to have an armed bystander attack an active shooter, according to a data analysis published by The New York Times.

Of those 433 active shooter cases, an armed bystander shot the attacker in 22 of the incidents. In 10 of those, the "good guy" was a security guard or an off-duty police officer, the Times reported.

And having more than one armed person at the scene who is not a member of law enforcement can create confusion and carry dire risks, the report found. For example, an armed bystander who shot and killed an attacker in 2021 in Arvada, Colorado, was himself shot and killed by the police who mistook him for the gunman, the Times reported.

In the Greenwood mall shooting, the gunman apparently used a long-gun rifle, Ison said, though law enforcement had not immediately recovered any weapons from the scene.

Police are still investigating the shooter's motive and questioning people who were inside the mall at the time. Police are asking all witnesses to contact authorities.

On Sunday evening, Meyers also thanked the person who fatally shot the gunman during the attack.

"This person saved lives tonight," the mayor said in another statement. "On behalf of the City of Greenwood, I am grateful for his quick action and heroism in this situation."


_________________
Professionally Identified and joined WP August 26, 2013
DSM 5: Autism Spectrum Disorder, DSM IV: Aspergers Moderate Severity

“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman


kitesandtrainsandcats
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 6 May 2016
Age: 60
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,965
Location: Missouri

18 Jul 2022, 9:23 am

Glad the fellow was there to end it before it got worse.

That these mass killings happen breaks my heart.


_________________
"There are a thousand things that can happen when you go light a rocket engine, and only one of them is good."
Tom Mueller of SpaceX, in Air and Space, Jan. 2011


ASPartOfMe
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 25 Aug 2013
Age: 66
Gender: Male
Posts: 34,237
Location: Long Island, New York

19 Jul 2022, 5:05 am

Bystander Killed Gunman 2 Minutes Into Indiana Mall Shooting

Quote:
A 20-year-old man carrying a rifle and pistol with access to another rifle and more than 100 rounds of ammunition was killed by a bystander two minutes after he began spraying gunfire at diners inside a mall food court in Greenwood, Ind., the authorities said on Monday.

By that time, the gunman, identified by the police as Jonathan Douglas Sapirman, 20, had already killed three people and injured two others. But the deadly spree on Sunday was cut short by a 22-year-old bystander carrying a handgun while shopping with his girlfriend.

Chief Jim Ison of the Greenwood Police Department called the bystander’s actions “nothing short of heroic,” identifying him as Elisjsha Dicken of Seymour, Ind.

“He engaged the gunman from quite a distance with a handgun, was very proficient in that, very tactically sound, and, as he moved to close in on the suspect, he was also motioning for people to exit behind him,” Chief Ison said at a news conference where he described surveillance video footage of the shooting.

The Johnson County coroner identified the victims, who were all from Indianapolis, as Victor Gomez, 30; and a husband and wife, Pedro Pineda, 56, and Rosa Mirian Rivera de Pineda, 37. Two additional people were injured: a 22-year-old woman hospitalized with a leg wound and a 12-year-old girl struck by a bullet fragment.

All the victims were shot by Mr. Sapirman, who fired 24 rounds, Chief Ison said. Mr. Dicken fired 10 rounds, killing the gunman as he tried to retreat to a mall bathroom where he had spent an hour apparently preparing for the attack.

The chief said there was no clear motive for the shooting.

There were no indicators the gunman was violent or unstable, his family members told the police, but he had recently received an eviction notice and resigned from a warehouse position in May. Chief Ison said the gunman had previous encounters with the local police, including for a fight at school.

Over the past two years, the relatives told the police, the gunman had frequently practiced shooting at a range in Greenwood, which is roughly 15 miles south of Indianapolis.

Mr. Sapirman brought three weapons into the Greenwood Park Mall, the police said: the gun he used in the shooting, a Sig Sauer M400 rifle he bought in March 2022; an M&P15 rifle that was found in the mall bathroom and bought in March 2021; and a Glock 33 pistol discovered on his body. The rifles were legally purchased in Greenwood, the police said.

When the gunman entered the mall just before 5 p.m., Chief Ison said, he walked directly to the food court’s bathroom, spending about an hour inside before exiting and taking aim at dozens of people eating dinner.

Police officers served a search warrant on Sunday night at a Greenwood apartment where the gunman lived by himself, discovering a laptop and a can of butane inside the oven, which had been left on at a high temperature.

The laptop had been damaged by the heat but would be analyzed, the chief said. The police are also trying to retrieve data from a waterlogged cellphone that they believe the gunman placed in a toilet in the mall bathroom.


_________________
Professionally Identified and joined WP August 26, 2013
DSM 5: Autism Spectrum Disorder, DSM IV: Aspergers Moderate Severity

“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman


roronoa79
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 22 Jan 2012
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,174
Location: Indiana

19 Jul 2022, 5:15 am

I go to this mall all the time. It's a bit of a drive so it's more of a thing for an occasional day trip but still.
And just a few months ago there was a shooting in Indianapolis at a warehouse near where I used to work. Chilling.

It's a good thing that kid was there. My concern with these incidents being resolved by private gunowners are those in the article that it is hard to identify in the confusion who is the shooter and who is defending themselves. Suppose there were one or two more people there with guns. If they tried to stop the shooter too, they could mistake each other for a second shooter.


_________________
Diagnoses: AS, Depression, General & Social Anxiety
I guess I just wasn't made for these times.
- Brian Wilson

Δυνατὰ δὲ οἱ προύχοντες πράσσουσι καὶ οἱ ἀσθενεῖς ξυγχωροῦσιν.
Those with power do what their power permits, and the weak can only acquiesce.

- Thucydides


Dillogic
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 24 Nov 2011
Gender: Male
Posts: 9,339

19 Jul 2022, 7:34 am

Handgun versus rifle at range in a moving engagement with innocents around.

Good job.

RIP to the victims.



ASPartOfMe
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 25 Aug 2013
Age: 66
Gender: Male
Posts: 34,237
Location: Long Island, New York

19 Jul 2022, 5:13 pm

What we know about the armed bystander who killed the shooter at an Indiana mall

Quote:
Dressed in shorts and a T-shirt, Elisjsha Dicken was shopping with his girlfriend when a gunman opened fire on a food court at a Greenwood, Indiana, mall Sunday evening, killing three people and wounding two others.

While the shooter, 20-year-old Douglas Sapirman, fired 24 rounds from an AR-15-style rifle, Dicken did not hesitate to use the Glock handgun he was legally carrying. Sapirman was "neutralized" within two minutes, police said.
As far as investigators know, Dicken "has no police training and no military training," Ison said. According to WTHR, Dicken's grandfather taught him how to shoot.

Few other details have emerged about Dicken, and an attorney for the young man has asked the public to respect the privacy of Dicken and his family.

"Because we want to respect the ongoing criminal investigation by the Greenwood Police Department and take time to honor the three innocent lives lost, we won't be making any substantive comments on Sunday's events until after the authorities' investigation is closed," attorney Guy A. Relford said in a statement to CNN.

After the shooting, Dicken "approached mall security and told them that he was the one that neutralized the shooter," and he waited for police to arrive, Ison said.

Police then took Dicken to the station, where detectives interviewed him. His statements correlated with video from the scene, the chief said.

"He's a young man processing a lot," Greenwood Mayor Mark Myers said. "I ask that you give him space and time to be able to process what he's gone through."


_________________
Professionally Identified and joined WP August 26, 2013
DSM 5: Autism Spectrum Disorder, DSM IV: Aspergers Moderate Severity

“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman