A man who rushed to the outlet mall in Texas on Saturday described the “carnage” he saw after a gunman opened fire killing eight people and wounding several others.
Steven Spainhouer told local CBS affiliate, KTVT, that he rushed to Allen Premium Outlets after he got a call from his son saying shots were fired outside the H&M store where he worked.
Spainhouer said he arrived at the scene before first responders and tried to provide aid to the victims of the shooting, but he was unable to help three people including a girl and a mother.
“The first girl I walked up to was crouched down covering her head in the bushes, so I felt for a pulse, pulled her head to the side and she had no face,” he said.
Spainhouer said he also found a child under the body of his mother who died while protecting him during the shooting.
“When I rolled the mother over, he came out. I asked him if he was OK and he said, ‘My mom is hurt, my mom is hurt.’ So rather than traumatize him, I pulled him around the corner sat him down and he was covered from head to toe…like somebody poured blood on him.”
Spainhouer’s son was not injured during the attack but two customers inside the H&M store were.
“No one can see what we saw today and not be affected by it,” Spainhouer told KTVT. “It’s not a situation I would wish upon anybody, it’s just unfathomable to see carnage.”
Allen Fire Chief Jonathan Boyd said at a news conference Saturday evening that six victims were pronounced dead at the scene, and another nine were rushed by paramedics to local hospitals. Two of the victims who were rushed to the hospital later died.
The gunman was killed at the scene by an officer who was responding to an unrelated call at the mall at the time of the shooting.
