A man in a pickup truck being chased by police drove through the doors of a Texas mall over the weekend, injuring five people before being shot and killed by officers.
According to a statement shared on Facebook by police in Killeen, located north of Austin, 911 operators in Temple, about 30 miles away, received a call about a man driving erratically in a black pickup truck at around 5 p.m. local time on Saturday, Dec. 21.
Police believe that the driver was intoxicated, Texas Department of Pubic Safety Sgt. Bryan Washko said during a press briefing, per CBS News, local affiliate station KXAN and NBC News.
A DPS trooper spotted the car and a chase quickly ensued, with the driver taking off west on I-14, Killeen police said.
By 5:30 p.m., the man — identified by Washko as 53-year-old Darrel Schultz — pulled off the highway and drove his truck into the parking lot of the Killeen Mall. As the DPS trooper and a Killeen police officer pursued him, he drove through the front glass doors of a JCPenny store, officials said.
Schultz allegedly continued driving through the store, running over people on his way, before he stopped several hundred feet inside the store.
Texas Department of Public Safety Sgt. Bryan Washko gives a press conference outside the Killeen Mall.
Killeen PD
“The trooper and the Killeen police officer continued on foot after this vehicle, which was driving through the store actively running people over,” Washko said during the briefing, per CBS News.
The trooper and the officer — as well as off-duty officers from three other agencies — followed Schultz through the store and opened fire, killing him, Washko said.
Daniel Bartlett, a JCPenney employee who was working at the time of the incident, told KXAN that he was in a back room of the store when he heard gunshots ring out.
“It’s only four days till Christmas. And so there’s a lot of shoppers and, you know, there’s a lot of people that are running,” Bartlett said, recalling the incident. “There’s only two entrances to get out, and so people are running out the salon entrance. I go and I hold the door open to help people out because people are panicking.”
A total of five people, ranging in age from 6 to 75, were injured, with four of them taken to nearby hospitals. One person drove to the hospital on their own, Fox 7 Austin reported.
“Thankfully he was stopped when he was, because it could have been so much worse,” Washko said of the driver. “This mall is pretty busy this time of year.”
He also said that despite reports circulating on social media, there was never an active shooter situation in the mall.
“It’s not an active shooter, as was reported,” the sergeant said. “But other than somebody who was running from the law, decided to drive through the Killeen Mall at Christmastime, running over four people, hopefully we don’t have any other deaths. To those who were involved, prayers are with them, of course, and their families, especially at Christmastime.”
Texas Rangers and DPS are still investigating the incident, officials said.
