Another American community mourned Sunday for lives lost to a mass shooting — this time at a Dallas-area outlet mall where a gunman stepped out of a sedan and opened fire on shoppers.
Eight people were killed and seven wounded Saturday in suburban Allen before the assailant was killed by a police officer who happened to be nearby, authorities said.
John Mark Caton, senior pastor at Cottonwood Creek Church, about two miles from the mall, offered prayers during his weekly service for victims, first responders, and the shoppers and employees who “walked out past things they never should have seen.”
“Some of our people were there. Some perhaps in this room. Some of our students were working in those stores and will be changed forever by this,” Caton said.
Recalling phone conversations with police officers, he said:
“There wasn’t an officer that I talked to yesterday that at some point in the call didn’t cry.”
The church planned an evening prayer vigil in the aftermath of the shooting, which was the latest attack to contribute to the unprecedented pace of mass killings this year.
Barely a week before, five people were fatally shot in Cleveland, Texas, after a neighbour asked a man to stop firing his weapon while a baby slept, authorities said.