El Paso Shooting: Multiple Fatalities Reported at Shopping Center

There were multiple victims in the shooting.

A sunny day at a shopping mall complex in this border city turned into chaos and bloodshed late Saturday morning, after a gunman opened fire inside a Walmart store, killing multiple people, wounding others and sending panicked shoppers into nearby stores.

The office of the El Paso mayor, Dee Margo, said in a statement that the police had confirmed several fatalities. The police declined to elaborate on the number and status of the victims.

Much about the shooting remained unclear as of Saturday afternoon. It was unknown how many had died and had been wounded. Police officials said one gunman was in custody.

The gunfire on Saturday in El Paso began a few minutes before 11 a.m., in a popular commercial district near Cielo Vista Mall with scores of restaurants and stores that are often crowded on the weekends. The Walmart store, located near Hawkins Boulevard and Gateway Boulevard West a short distance from the mall, was packed at the time.

Hospitals and emergency workers are treating victims.

Enrique Duenas-Aguilar, a spokesman for the El Paso Fire Department, said emergency workers had transported 18 people who were wounded to nearby hospitals. “We don’t have any numbers on fatalities as of right now,” Mr. Duenas-Aguilar said.

Local hospitals are treating patients from the scene. Victor Guerrero, a spokesman for Del Sol Medical Center, said the hospital was treating 11 victims. Nine were in critical but stable condition and two were stable, he said. Patient ages ranged from 35 to 82.

The University Medical Center of El Paso received 13 patients, according to Ryan Mielke, the hospital’s spokesman. He said two minors, including a two-year-old, were stabilized and transferred to El Paso Children’s Hospital. Mr. Mielke said the victims’ conditions ranged from minor injury to fatal.

Witnesses described the violent scene.

“We heard shots and saw smoke,” said Victor Gamboa, 18, who works at the McDonald’s inside the Walmart store where the shooting took place. “I saw a man on the floor full of blood. He appeared to be dead. It happened very quickly.”

Mr. Gamboa said he and other McDonald’s workers inside the Walmart sheltered the customers to keep them safe and huddled on the ground for 15 minutes. Officers eventually arrived and escorted the group out to a Sam’s Club store across the street.

Another Walmart worker, Sergio Armando Samaniego, 40, who works as a clerk in the store’s garden center, said he heard the gunman enter through the automotive section. Mr. Samaniego had been on break and was headed back to the garden center when, minutes later, he heard gunshots.

“I’m lucky,” Mr. Samaniego said. “One of my friends was shot. I saw another customer running out of the store with a shot in his back. I’m just shocked.”

Arturo Rubio reported from El Paso, Manny Fernandez from Houston and Mariel Padilla from New York. John Leo De Frank contributed reporting from El Paso and Derrick Bryson Taylor from New York.