Steven Spanhouer Wiki – Steven Spanhouer Biography

Steven Spanhouer is a man who witnessed the shooting at the outlet mall on Saturday recalled being one of the first people to arrive on the scene, running to rescue his son from a clothing store where the attack on the now-deceased began. The shooting occurred at the Allen Premium Outlets in Allen, a small suburb north of Dallas, and killed at least eight people. At least one of those killed, Steven Spainhouer recalled, was a child, whom he desperately tried to save after rushing to H&M, where his own son had been working.

Shortly before, around 3:30 pm, Spainhouer received a frantic call from his son notifying him that shots had been fired outside the store, with his relative still trapped inside. The footage shows the moment the first shots rang out, in which the unidentified gunman is seen pulling the store, which moments later would be littered with multiple bloody bodies, seen in the footage currently circulating. Driving with the intent to save the life of his son, Spainhouer explained how he got there before first responders, and was faced with the monumental task of trying to save lives.

“I never imagined in 100 years that I would be pushed into the position of first responder on site to care for people,” he told CBS News, recalling how a handful of people around him videotaped the bodies outside his home. His son’s H&M, where it is believed he started the anonymous gunman’s assault.

Still unidentified, the shooter was killed by police officers in other parts of the complex soon after, killed by an Allen police officer who was on the scene on an unrelated call and heard the shots outside the H&M. While that was happening, and before the arrival of other officers, Spainhouer, who is trained in CPR, attempted to resuscitate several people struck by the gunman’s initial hail of gunfire, including three he said could no longer be saved.

“The first girl I approached was crouching down covering her head in the bushes, so I felt her pulse, pulled her head to the side and she had no face,” he said of the first victim he came across, a young. girl.

Still determined to salvage the mess for the victims, Spainhouer recalled how he later found another boy, who survived the barrage of bullets by being covered by his protective mother, who said he was among eight killed by the gunman. “When I turned the mother around, she came out,” Spainhouer said, speaking to CBS reporter JD Miles just a few hundred yards from where the carnage was seen just hours earlier.

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“I asked her if she was okay and she said, ‘My mom is hurt, my mom is hurt.’ Spainhouer described how he tried to ease the boy’s mental anguish by removing the gruesome scene. “Rather than traumatize him further, I pulled him around the corner, sat him down, and he was covered from head to toe.” Spainhouer added: “Like someone spilled blood on him.”

In the ensuing chaos, the dutiful father tried to rescue another victim, but was also unsuccessful. Meanwhile, as important minutes passed, Spainhouer, unaware that the unidentified Allen officer was already on the scene, waited for others to arrive to assist him with his efforts.

“He was on the phone with 911 and he was telling them that we have a mass casualty incident,” the father said, visibly emotional during the television interview. Spainhouer further added that while he and others awaited medical help, local police were forced to transport several of the victims to nearby doctors, as their condition was too serious to wait for an ambulance.

“No one can see what we saw today and not be affected by it,” he said, saying the day’s events would stick with him. “It’s not a situation I would wish on anyone, it’s just unfathomable to see carnage.” Spainhouer’s son also told the station that two customers inside the H&M store were among the at least seven injured.

His father, holding back tears, commented: “It’s hard to see a family out shopping, having fun, get wiped off the face of the Earth because someone with a gun has some other kind of problem.” Starting at approximately 3:30 p.m. m. and forcing a mass evacuation, the shooting has rocked the small town of Allen and left residents desperate for answers.

Dashcam footage showed the moment the gunman, dressed in full SWAT garb, stopped at the open-air exit before opening fire on unsuspecting civilians, using an AR-15 to mow down a crowd that included children. Police, meanwhile, for the most part remained silent on the exact extent of the tragedy, issuing scattered statements confirming that several had been killed, before specifying how many and whether a shooter was still at large.

However, disturbing images captured at the scene, as well as accounts from various witnesses, shed some light on what had transpired, showing at least four bloody bodies lying outside the H&M where the gunman was seen beginning his assault. One of our officers was on an unrelated call at the mall,” said Brian E. Harvey, police chief in the suburb about 20 miles from downtown Dallas. “He heard shots, went to the shots, confronted the suspect, and neutralized the suspect.”

Another harrowing video, filmed a few stores away, showed the gunman who died shortly after being shot dead by the unidentified Allen officer, who heroically ran towards the sound of the ongoing gunfire, according to his superiors. Initially, reports from local police sources initially indicated that there could be two armed men, the murdered man and another fugitive, although the policemen during the evening press conference revealed that they are confident that he acted alone.

“We believe at this point that the shooter acted alone,” Harvey said Saturday night. Harvey, however, did not provide the name of the deceased gunman, whose motive for carrying out the killings remains unknown. Meanwhile, other images and photos taken at the scene help piece together what exactly happened at the mall, with several showing at least four people, including children, slumped to death after the gunman attacked.

In a statement four and a half hours after officers were first called to the mall, the Allen Police Department revealed that one of its officers subdued the shooter while responding to an unrelated call, when they heard gunshots shortly after 3:30 p.m. That officer, a department representative said, “hired the suspect and neutralized the threat.” Police Chief Brian Harvey did not identify the officer who brought down the shooter Saturday, but confirmed there were multiple deaths. He did not specify how many, although police are expected to provide more details tonight.

Before the 8:00 p.m. m., police said they still considered the scene to be “active,” and local law enforcement sources told CNN that one of the suspects was still on the run. Cops, however, quickly dismissed that theory in their 8 p.m. news release, stating the shooter acted alone and was no longer a threat. Hours earlier, police officers and ATF agents were seen sweeping stores for several hours during the mass evacuation of the site, more than two hours after police first descended on the complex after receiving reports of gunshots.

Police were also silent on the number of victims, although a spokesman for Medical City Healthcare, a few miles away, said eight victims are being treated at their facility. Some of the victims, as much of the disturbing video seen online suggested, were children, with the representative telling Fox 4 ranging in age from 5 to 61. Aerial video shows citizens being escorted out of the facility, many with their hands to their heads looking visibly distraught, while more shocking clips revealed the fatalities from the incident, including the dead gunman.

Footage captured by a Fox helicopter showed at least four bodies outside the H&M store seen in recently released video of the first gunman, which showed him opening fire on several unsuspecting victims after arriving at the store in a gray Dodge Charger. .

Disturbing video footage from the same site hours later showed bloody corpses surrounded by items, including backpacks, suggesting that some of those killed were children. In another disturbing snippet, the deceased gunman is seen outside another Allen store just a few dozen feet from H&M. He is seen dressed in tactile gear with a semi-automatic rifle at his side. Other accounts posted on social media between 5 p.m. m. and 8 p.m. m. They offered a glimpse of the events leading up to the shooter’s death and the mass evacuation of the entire mall rocked by the sudden storm of gunfire.

One such account, published shortly after the first of dozens of shots allegedly rang out, provided insight into the horror shoppers faced and came from a mother whose car was punctured by two bullets as she fled the scene with her young daughter. ‘Don’t go to Allen’s shop!!!’ Van Alstyne resident Kimberly Blakey wrote in a Facebook post at 5:13 p.m. m. Attached to the post were several photos showing the damage to her car door from the two bullets. “Peyton and I were there and someone started shooting,” she recalled after escaping the scene with her eighth grade daughter.

“People were running and we were just trying to leave.” “The shooting,” she added, “was continuous.” ‘My car was hit by two bullets. We are very grateful to be well. Other photos released by eyewitnesses showed the as-yet-unidentified shooter shortly after he Few other details about the shooting, and it is not yet clear if there have been any fatalities. However, multiple shots were fired, according to police officers and survivors of the tragedy.

Earlier in the day, a representative for the Collin County Sheriff’s Office, which is assisting the local police investigation, confirmed Saturday that there were “some” victims, though their state, as of 10 p.m. ET, not yet known.

While officers said they were “investigating” the shooting, video from a Fox 4 helicopter showed at least four blood-covered bodies on white sheets. In his afternoon update, Chief Harvey said a police officer, who was on an unrelated assignment at the time, shot the shooter after hearing the first hail of gunfire, which is heard and seen on camera footage. of the board.

Aside from those killed in that video, officials were only able to account for seven other victims who were transported to hospitals. However, as authorities said, several more victims may have been taken away in private vehicles.

Elaine Penicaro, another local mother, also described hearing a nonstop barrage of gunshots as she shopped with her own daughter. “We were outside the Converse store and we heard all these bangs,” Penicaro told Fox 4 after fleeing the scene, ducking for cover when they heard the shots around 3:45 p.m.

“We all just stopped, and then a second later, it’s just ‘Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop,’ and there were sparks flying like it was right in front of us.” Brayson Jones, a 17-year-old who worked the afternoon shift at the outlet’s Champs Sports store, told the New York Times that he heard “probably more than 20 shots” and saw people running out of the stores.

“As soon as I heard the shots and the screams of the people, I didn’t wait to see what was happening, I backed up and got out of there,” the teenager recalled of the hectic scene. He added that in the frenzy he rescued a random stranger, who he said ran to his car when shots were fired and waved for him to let him in.

Another aerial shooting shows the mass evacuation that occurred as police reportedly swept each store to assess their safety, with hundreds of shoppers pouring out of the H&M location where the bodies were seen.

The same store was seen in the background of footage that showed people running through a parking lot in front of the mall, all while the loud sound of gunshots emanated in the background. A woman named Colleen, who did not want to give her last name, told CBS Texas that she was with her son at the mall at the time of the shooting.

They described the shooter as wearing all black and wearing “like a SWAT uniform without the letters SWAT.” She said the shooter was a “big guy” and that he was carrying a rifle before opening fire and people started running screaming in different directions. Colleen and her 22-year-old son said they saw the killer dead on the ground when police evacuated them with other bodies also on the ground.

Her son initially thought the gunshots were construction noises before seeing the killer in front of the store. He said: ‘Out of nowhere I heard like 10 bangs and looked at the customer next to me and said ‘was that gunshots?’ And he said it was probably just construction and more shots were fired, he heard like 10-15 more shots and I ran to the front of the store and we said no, that’s shooting.

“We saw the guy dressed in black with a vest, he has an assault rifle and he’s just shooting people.” A witness told CNN that he saw the gunman get out of his vehicle before “shooting his gun all over the place for the most part” on the outside sidewalk. He said: ‘The door opened and he was letting customers into the store.

“He was walking down the sidewalk and burning up most of him and shooting his gun out of the store. Another man, who was shopping with his wife and 6-year-old son, said his family ran into a dressing room and stacked cardboard boxes against the door to protect themselves.

He said: ‘We hid in the test room and there were spare boxes so we tried to close it with the boxes and a couple of other women were in there. “We hid for about two minutes and heard the noise. We didn’t realize [what was happening] because the noise was coming from outside. “To be honest, for 10 minutes I was completely scared, I couldn’t imagine what it could be because we just parked the car and it was only five minutes.

When the police started the evacuation we saw the body and I didn’t want my son to see it but he saw it too.’

Another witness named Jamil said: “We were inside the store and suddenly we heard gunshots and everyone was panicking, but the store we were in was very helpful.” They took everyone from behind and then the police came, a SWAT team came, they took us outside and escorted us out.

“When we were walking past Michael Kors, we saw the dead body, the guy had all the gear, he looks like a police officer, but when you look at these shoes, he was wearing converse. “So that makes you think he was just trying to fool people and he got shot right in the forehead.” A man rushed to the scene after his daughter, who was at the mall, sent him a text saying “Dad I love you, there’s a shooting.” He said: ‘My daughter just texted me and her mom and she said ‘dad I love you there’s a shooting and I’m surrounded by police just pray for me’.

“We ran here and we saw the police outside her door and they told us to let her go and they were still looking for her person. ‘This is America, people are dying in hospitals, waiting rooms and college campuses. There are no safe places anymore. Other witnesses said employees led them to the back of the stores before exiting that side after police said it was safe to leave. The shooting has left the city of Allen searching for answers, and there have been at least 199 mass shootings in the United States this year.

It also comes shortly before the anniversary of the statewide mass shooting in Uvalde, in which nineteen children and two adults were shot to death by an 18-year-old gunman with an assault weapon.

This incident, at the time, sparked a national outcry due to the unfortunate handling of the attack by local police, a response that is reflected in Allen’s officer’s still image from Saturday’s event, which was praised by brass in the outlet. from Allen on Saturday. “We are horrified by today’s senseless tragedy and outraged by the violence that continues to plague our country,” Allen Premium Outlets said in a statement Saturday night.

‘Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims, their families and others affected by this heinous act. We are grateful for the heroic actions of the police officer and for the support of all first responders.” The shooting, while still wrapped up, also prompted a response from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who touted how his office has dispatched state officials from various agencies to assist Allen police with their investigation, including the Texas Department of Public Safety. Texas (DPS) and Texas Rangers. .

“Our hearts go out to the people of Allen, Texas tonight during this unspeakable tragedy,” Abbott said in his written statement.

“I have been in contact with Mayor Fulk and DPS Director McCraw, as well as other state and local leaders, and have offered the full support of the State of Texas to local officials to ensure that all necessary assistance and resources are implement quickly.” However, the governor’s response was soon met with criticism from some on social media, due to his insistence and others that the US shooting epidemic does not stem from lax state and federal laws involving gun control.

Mayor Kevin Fulk, a lifelong Allen resident, added, “Today is a tragic day for the City of Allen… We know the days ahead will be difficult and dark.” Texas Senator Cruz also issued a statement saying that he and his wife Heidi are praying for the families of the victims of the horrific shooting at the mall in Allen, Texas. “We also pray for the broader Collin County community that is shocked by this tragedy,” said the Republican, an outspoken opponent of stricter gun laws.Read More……