More On: Elisjsha Dicken
As a Good Samaritan Elisjsha Dicken deserves a medal
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Elisjsha Dicken, the 22-year-old 'hero' who killed the mass shooter in Indiana
Elisjsha Dicken, the 22-year-old who killed the mass shooter in Indiana was armed because of 'Constitutional Carry'
Police said on Monday that the gunman who killed three people in a shopping mall near Indianapolis probably would have killed many more people if an armed bystander hadn't shot the suspect dead and stopped the attack.
Authorities have named the three people who were killed in a shooting at an Indiana mall on Sunday, as well as the disturbed man who did it and the brave bystander who shot him and probably saved a lot of other people from being killed.
Pedro Pineda, 56, and Rosa Mirian Rivera de Pineda, 37, both from Indianapolis, and Victor Gomez, 30, also from Indianapolis, were killed when Jonathan Sapirman opened fire on shoppers in the Greenwood Park Mall around 6 p.m., police and the local coroner said Monday.
Greenwood Police Chief James Ison said at a press conference that 20-year-old Sapirman was also killed when he was shot by a legally armed man who was shopping at the mall with his girlfriend at the time.
Elisjsha Dicken, a shopper from Seymour who was 22 years old, shot and killed Sapirman with a pistol two minutes after the shooting started.
At the press conference, his brave actions were praised.
“We’re very thankful for a young 22-year-old man who stopped this violent act,” Greenwood Mayor Mark Myers said. “This young man, Greenwood’s Good Samaritan, acted within seconds, stopping the shooter and saving countless lives.”
Sapirman, who quit his warehouse job and was facing eviction from his home, entered the mall shortly before 5 p.m. and went straight into a bathroom near the food court where he spent more than an hour preparing for the shooting, Ison said.
After an hour and two minutes, he came out of the bathroom and started shooting at people in the food court with a gun. He hit Gomez first, then the Pinedas.
A 22-year-old woman was shot in the leg by the same person. She is getting better in a hospital nearby.
Ison also said that a 12-year-old girl was taken to the hospital after a bullet fragment that hit a wall inside the mall and hit her in the back.
Two minutes after Sapirman started shooting, Dicken went up to him and fired 10 shots from a distance. Sapirman tried to hide in the bathroom, but he was killed in the process and fell to the floor.
Police said Dicken, who legally carried the firearm, has no military background or police training but demonstrated smart and brave instincts.
“His actions were nothing short of heroic,” Ison said. “He engaged the gunman from quite a distance with a handgun, was very proficient in that, very tactically sound and as he moved to close in on the suspect, he was also motioning for people to exit behind him.”
Sapirman, who has no criminal record other than minor juvenile run-ins, fired off 24 rounds from an AR-15-style rifle in the two minutes before he was taken out.
“Many more people would have died last night if not for a responsible armed citizen that took action very quickly,” Ison said.
Police found a second rifle, a handgun, several magazines, and more than 100 rounds of ammunition on the shooter and hidden in the bathroom of the mall. Sapirman threw his cell phone into a toilet in a bathroom stall, but officers found it.
Later, investigators went to the gunman's apartment and found his laptop inside an oven that was turned up very hot, along with a can of butane.
The FBI is trying to get the data back from both devices, which were broken because of what Sapirman did.
Ison said that at this point in the investigation, no reason is known.
Police were told by Sapirman's family that he gave no signs of being violent or unstable.
The 20-year-old bought the gun he used in the shooting legally in March, and his family said he often went to a shooting range nearby.
The attack was the latest in a long line of mass shootings that have killed many people in the United States.
In the past few months, mass shooters have gone after schools, churches, grocery stores, a Fourth of July parade, and now a mall. This means that people just going about their daily lives are almost nowhere safe.
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