Four people are dead and two people were hospitalized following a mass shooting at Greenwood Park Mall on Sunday evening.
The shooter, who was killed during the incident, entered the mall with a rifle and several magazines of ammunition and began firing in the food court, Greenwood Police Department Chief Jim Ison said.
First responders from numerous Johnson and Marion county agencies responded to a report of a shooting at the mall around 6 p.m. Sunday.
Five people inside the mall were shot during the shooting, three who are deceased. The two remaining people were taken to Eskenazi Hospital in Indianapolis in unknown condition, Ison said.
The shooter was shot and killed by a good Samaritan who had witnessed the shooting. The good Samaritan is cooperating with police, Ison said, and was identified as a 22-year-old Bartholomew County resident.
Police found a long rifle with several ammo magazines with the shooter, he said. It is believed the shooter entered the food court. The incident was contained to that location, officials said.
“This type of situation is horrible. It has rocked us to our core,” Ison said Sunday.
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department assisted Greenwood police at the scene clearing the building. Officers from the IMPD SWAT team along with other area tactical teams went methodically through the mall to clear the building, both Ison and IMPD assistant chief Christopher Bailey said Sunday.
“We are sickened by yet another type of incident like this in our country, in our city,” Bailey said.
Police did not say how many guns were at the scene or how many shots were fired. A backpack was left behind, and it’s not clear if it belonged to the shooter.
Those who may have witnessed the shooting are being encouraged to go to the GPD Training Facility, 736 Loews Blvd., to speak with officers. They can also call the Johnson County Dispatch Center at 317-346-6336.
Family reunification took place at the training facility, officials said.
Greenwood Mayor Mark Myers said in a statement issued Sunday evening that the shooting was a tragedy that hit at “the core of our community.”
“Please offer your prayers to the victims and our first responders,” Myers said.
In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, hundreds of witnesses, law enforcement and EMS were gathered outside the mall on U.S. 31 in Greenwood following the reports of an active shooter in the building.
Witnesses standing outside the mall said they heard several gunshots inside and ran out. One witness said they were ushered to the back of a store to wait.
“I heard at least five shots from where I was … I was around the corner from where they started shooting,” Mark Tillbrey, a 16-year-old witness at the mall, said. “Everyone started running, and I started helping kids out.”
Police said one of the wounded individuals was a 12-year-old girl who suffered a minor injury. The other victims were in their 20s or 30s, police said.