A shooting at a mall in El Paso, Texas, that left one dead and three wounded, began as a fight between two groups, police said Thursday.
The people involved in Wednesday’s brawl at the Cielo Vista shopping center ranged in age from their late teens to early 20s, said Acting Police Chief Peter Pacillas.
“It’s a random incident that happened between two groups at the mall,” he said.
El Paso police said hours after the shooting that two people had been taken into custody.
The incident occurred in a busy shopping area and very close to a Walmart parking lot where 23 people were killed in a racist attack against Hispanics in 2019. El Paso, which has a majority Latino population of about 700,000 peopleis located on the United States border with Mexico, where residents of both countries cross frequently.
The United States has recorded dozens of deaths from mass shootings so far in 2023, the most recent Monday at Michigan State University, where three students were killed and five others wounded. In January, 11 people were killed in the city of Monterey Park, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, while ringing in the Lunar New Year at a popular Asian-American dance hall.
Pacillas noted that the two people arrested after Wednesday’s shooting, as well as all the victims, were men.
The FBI, which is assisting El Paso police with the investigation, has created a website where the public can share photos and videos of the shooting.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted Wednesday night that he had spoken with the mayor of El Paso and offered help from the Department of Public Safety and the Texas Division of Emergency Management.
In 2022 there were more than 600 mass shootings in the United States with at least four killed or injured, according to the Gun Violence Archive.