On May 6, a neo-Nazi attacked a shopping mall in suburban Allen, Texas, killing seven and wounding eight in a gruesome mass killing.
A police officer on duty at the mall quickly reacted and killed the active shooter single handedly. Now, the officer has been cleared of wrongdoing… and the Allen Police Department released the jaw dropping body camera footage on Wednesday.
A five-and-a-half-minute video shows the officer ending the shooting rather quickly, and it details the final moments of the 33-year-old neo-Nazi shooter attacking a shopping mall with his AR-15-style rifle.
The footage starts with the officer telling two children outside the mall to wear their seatbelts and be good to their mother.
Moments later, the sound of rapid gunfire erupts from the mall. The children and a woman with them run away as the officer radios in the report, grabs his rifle from his car and dashes toward the gunfire, the body camera footage shows.
As he runs toward the gunfire, the panting officer — still unidentified — shouts at civilians to move and get out. At one point, he tells the dispatcher, “I believe we’ve got a mass shooter” and shouts at the gunman to drop his weapon.
“I’m passing injured (people),” he adds.
The officer continues to run through the outside galleries of the outlet as the sound of gunfire bursts continues. About four minutes into the video, the officer opens fire with at least a half-dozen shots.
An instant later, the officer shouts: “Drop the gun!” and then reports: “I’ve got him down!”
Another officer then confirms the gunman is dead.
The video ends with the two officers standing next to the gunman’s body, which is blurred out.
Take a look.
But be warned. The footage is gruesome —
Incredible body cam video from the hero cop who neutralized the Allen Outlet Mall shooter in TX. He pivots from telling kids to wear their seatbelts to rushing into danger with zero backup. His identity has yet to be released but thank him when it is. pic.twitter.com/x54lMqJOF6
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) June 28, 2023
The video was released a day after a grand jury cleared the officer of wrongdoing, indicating that “the use of force was justified under Texas law,” according to a police statement.
In the statement, Allen Police Chief Brian Harvey praised the officer.
“This video shows how quickly a routine interaction with the public turned into a life-and-death situation,” Harvey said. “The officer recognized the danger, ran toward the gunfire and neutralized the threat — and for his actions, the Allen community is forever grateful.”
The shooter used one of eight legally purchased guns he had brought to the mall, authorities said.
He had no criminal record, but he was booted from the Army 15 years ago for mental health reasons, according to an Army official’s remark to The Associated Press.
Police haven’t revealed a motive for the attack. However, the shooter left a long trail of online posts describing his violent neo-Nazi views. He described mass shootings as sport and posted photos showing his large Nazi tattoos and a favorite passage in the “Hunger Games” books marked with a swastika drawn in green highlighter.
The shooter was Latino, and he posted one cartoon image showing a Latino child at a fork in a road, with one direction labeled “act black” and the other, “become a white supremacist.”
“I think I’ll take my chances with the white supremacist,” he wrote.
All in all, he killed three members of a family: Kyu Song Cho, 37; Cindy Cho, 35; and their 3-year-old son, James Cho. Their 6-year-old son was wounded.
Also killed were Aishwarya Thatikonda, 27; sisters Daniela Mendoza, 11, and Sofia Mendoza, 8; security guard Christian LaCour, 20; and Elio Cumana-Rivas, 32.
The Horn editorial team and the Associated Press contributed to this article.