i m fredricka whitfield. we begin in texas wihere a weekend shopping trip turned to carnage. eight dead, seven wounded after a gunman opened fire into a crowded space at an outlet mall in allen, texas. that s just north of dallas. a warning, some of what you re about to see is disturbing. a witness dash cam capturing the moment the killer got out of his car and immediately began firing, ambushing unsuspected people walking by. we re pausing this video before the shooting begins, but other witnesses were recording as the attack unfolded. what you hear are multiple rapid gunshots and you see, of course, people running for their lives. a photo obtained by cnn appears to show the gunman after he was shot by a responding officer. you can see an ar-15 style rifle nearby. the gunman is clad in black, body armor, and appears to have several extra magazines strapped to his chest. ed lavandera is on the scene there in allen, texas. ed, what more are police saying, if anything, at thi
Will happen again. it could happen to you, to any listener out there at any time. then, what is your response responsibility. we really appreciate, you know, your thoughts and the clarity with your thoughts. but then your reaction to the texas governor, whose sound bite we played, who said, you know, america is divided and america has got to find a way to reunite. that was one of the responses as to what transpired from this massacre. is that well placed in your view? is this about a division in america? no. we re always going to have divides. they are going to be exasperated on both sides of the aisle by people who have agendas. we should find a consensus somewhere along the line to do the right thing to change our gun laws so that we can have safe communities. [ no audio ]
Lives. those are victims as much as someone. [ no audio ] . i know how to process this ptsd. i have talked to combat vets and police officers that i know. i will get help. my son is getting help. the biggest help is the help we can give to our nation. i love guns, i love the second amendment, i own guns, i teach people how to shoot guns, but we don t need these high capacity weapons on our streets. you want to have a shotgun, a pistol, that s fine with me. but we have got to change the narrative. i m telling you, i m going to say something to our texas governor. all the prayers and thoughts and well wishes are great, in a time of tragedy, but if you don t change our gun laws, put red flag laws in place and take the high capacity weapons off the street it s going to happen again. i don t care if it s in uvalde, allen, texas, el paso, texas, i don t care if it s in chicago, atlanta or any other place. if we don t do something other than giving prayers and best wishes when tragedy happens
Texas governor greg abbott says he will be traveling to the scene today to help the shattered and heartbroken community. earlier today he had this to say in response to the shooting and growing violence that we are seeing sweeping across the country. there are questions that are lingering the families want answers to, and that is, why did this happen? why did the gunman do this? how did this happen? and i know those families need an answer as quickly as possible. it truly seems today that america is more divided than we ve been in decades, and we got to find a way in this country where we can once again reunite americans as americans and come together as one big family. in that regard, find ways to reduce violence in our country. joining us right now is someone who lived through this horrific event, steven spainhower.
The guy held his neck like this and there was blood dripping down, you know, and then we went inside and then i had two people in front of me, go down. we all went down. i heard three shots, pop, pop, pop, like right on the other side. reporter: so, fredricka, the major headlines this afternoon, the texas department of public safety the lead agency in this investigation and city of allen officials are saying there will be no press briefings and updates on what transpired here yesterday. fredricka? that is striking, ed lavandera, some 24 hours after that would take place, just shattering a community of allen, texas. of course, it would be nice if there were changes and we learn more information. we know you ll bring it to us as we know. no scheduled press conference from law enforcement there. all right. today, president biden ordered flags to be lowered to half staff for what he called the senseless acts of violence that was seen in allen, texas.