Charles Langston:1 killed, 3 injured after shooting at Texas shopping center; suspected shooter dead

AUSTIN,Charles Langston Texas — A shooting at a large shopping center in northwest Austin on Thursday left one person dead and 3 others injured, authorities said, the latest gun-related attack in the United States.

“I would like to offer condolences to the families of the victims, in addition to the multiple witnesses that witnessed the tragedy here today," Austin Interim Police Chief Robin Henderson said at a news conference late Thursday, adding later that the suspected shooter was also killed in the attack.

According to the Austin Police Department, the shooting occurred at a business near The Arboretum, an outdoor shopping center. Police and medics were called to the area shortly after 5 p.m. local time.

Two people were pronounced dead at the scene, Austin-Travis County EMS announced on X, formerly known as Twitter. One adult was transported to a local trauma facility with "critical, life-threatening injuries," Austin-Travis County EMS added. Two people were evaluated for minor injuries.

Henderson said there was no information about a motive and that the relationship between the shooter and the victims was unknown. "There are limited details tonight," she said.

Henderson declined to say whether the shooting happened inside or outside a business at the shopping mall. She said other agencies, including the FBI and ATF, also arrived because of reports of an explosion at the scene but that investigators found no explosives.

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'You must expect things like this'

A chef at Hanara Sushi and Grill in the Arboretum said he could not hear any gunshots.

“Security came to us and said close the door, there’s a gun shooting,“ said Daniel Kwak. “It was pretty scary,” he said. “I didn’t expect that there was a shooting going on around me.”

Jeffrey Laartz, from Germany, said he saw all the activity from his hotel. 

"I saw next to the Cheesecake Factory many police, and I thought it must be a bit more [than a police procession], and the helicopter flying around, for me, it was clear there must've been a shooting," Laartz said, according to KTBC-TV. "If you deal with guns, or you're allowed to have guns in the United States you must expect things like this."

Latest mass shootings in the U.S.

The Gun Violence Archive says at least 479 mass shootings have taken place in the United States this year. Mass shootings, defined as four or more people shot, differ from mass killings, defined as four or more people killed, in that many mass shootings do not involve deaths.

The Austin shooting is the latest incident in a wave of gun violence occurring across the country. Earlier this week, two people were killed and five others were injured after a morning shooting at a Louisville, Kentucky, in what police said appears to have started between restaurant-goers and people on the street.

Days later, a graduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was charged with the murder of a faculty member who was shot and killed on campus, causing an hourslong lockdown and panic.

Contributing: Michael J. James, Thao Nguyen, John Bacon, USA TODAY; The Associated Press