Investigators believe the unidentified gunman, an adult male, was shot and killed by a legally armed 22-year-old man who “observed the shooting in progress,” Eason said. The injured or dead include a man and four women, including a 12-year-old girl whose parents took her to the hospital with minor injuries after the shooting, the chief said. The second injured victim was hospitalized and in stable condition as of Sunday afternoon, Eason said. “This has shaken us to our core. This is not something we have seen here in Greenwood before. It is absolutely horrific and our thoughts and prayers are with these loved ones who are hurting tonight,” the police chief said.
The Greenwood Police Department has trained for a mass shooting scenario and conducted “multiple mall drills” to prepare for active shooter situations, he said. “But I’ll tell you, the real hero of the day is the citizen who was legally carrying a firearm in that food court and was able to stop this shooter almost as soon as he started,” Eason said. It is rare for an armed bystander to attack an active shooter, according to a data analysis published by the New York Times. There were at least 433 active shooter attacks in the US from 2000 to 2021, according to the data analysis. Active shooter attacks were defined as those in which one or more shooters killed or attempted to kill multiple unrelated individuals in a populated area.
Of those 433 active shooter incidents, an armed bystander shot the assailant in 22 of the incidents. In 10 of them, the “good man” was a security guard or off-duty police officer, the Times reported. And having more than one armed person on the scene who is not a member of law enforcement can create confusion and pose dire risks, according to the report. For example, an armed bystander who shot and killed an attacker in 2021 in Arvada, Colorado, was himself shot and killed by police who mistook him for the gunman, the Times reported. In the shooting at the Greenwood mall, the gunman apparently used a long-range rifle, Ison said, although law enforcement had not immediately recovered any weapons from the scene. Olivia Harding said she was at Old Navy in the mall when she and her mom heard four gunshots and thought the nearby carousel had broken down. “The next thing you know, you hear about six more shots and you see everybody running,” Harding told CNN affiliate WISH. Harding said she doesn’t think she’ll be back in a mall “for a long time.” There have been 350 mass shootings this year, according to Archive Gun Violence. Like CNN, the file defines a mass shooting as one in which four or more people are shot, not including the shooter. The community now joins a number of others also grappling with the aftermath of mass shootings, including communities reeling from the recent massacres at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois. SWAT teams cleared the mall and determined there were no additional threats in the building, Ison said. Police are still investigating the attacker’s motive and are questioning people who were inside the mall at the time. Police are asking any witnesses to contact authorities. Multiple agencies responded to the scene to assist, including the FBI, ATF, Johnson County Sheriff’s Department and Department of Homeland Security, Ison said. Police cleared a backpack found at the scene and found no explosive devices, Eason said. “This tragedy strikes at the core of our community,” Greenwood Mayor Mark Meyers said in a Facebook post. “Please offer your prayers to the victims and our first responders.” On Sunday night, Myers 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.”