By that time, the gunman, identified by police as Jonathan Douglas Sapirman, 20, had already killed three people and wounded two others. But Sunday’s deadly spree was cut short by a 22-year-old passerby who wielded a handgun while shopping with his girlfriend. Chief Jim Eason of the Greenwood Police Department called the bystander’s actions “nothing short of heroic,” identifying him as Elisjsha Dicken of Seymour, Ind. “He engaged the gunman from quite a distance with a handgun, he was very good at it, very tactical, and as he moved to approach the suspect, he also signaled people to get behind him,” Chief Eason said. at a news conference where he described surveillance video of the shooting. The Johnson County Coroner identified the victims, who were all from Indianapolis, as Victor Gomez, 30. and a husband, Pedro Pineda, 56, and Rosa Mirian Rivera de Pineda, 37. Two additional people were injured: a 22-year-old woman was treated for a leg wound and a 12-year-old girl was hit by a shrapnel bullet. All the victims were shot by Mr. Sapirman, who fired 24 bullets, Chief Ison said. Mr Dicken fired 10 rounds, killing the gunman as he tried to retreat to a bathroom at a shopping center where he had spent an hour apparently preparing the attack. The chief said there is no clear motive for the shooting. There were no signs the gunman was violent or unstable, family members told police, but he had recently received an eviction notice and resigned from a warehouse position in May. Chief Eason said the gunman had previous run-ins with local police, including over a fight at school. Over the past two years, relatives told police, the gunman had practiced shooting frequently at a range in Greenwood, located about 15 miles south of Indianapolis. Mr. Sapirman brought three guns to Greenwood Park Mall, the police said: the gun he used in the shooting, a Sig Sauer M400 rifle he bought in March 2022. an M&P15 rifle found in a mall bathroom and bought in March 2021. and a Glock 33 handgun was discovered on his body. The rifles were legally purchased in Greenwood, police said. When the gunman entered the mall just before 5 p.m., Chief Eason said, he went straight to the stadium’s bathroom, spending about an hour inside before exiting and flagging down dozens of diners. Two minutes later, Mr Dicken fatally shot the gunman. When police arrived, they handcuffed Mr Dicken and took him to a station for questioning, where security camera footage confirmed his account of events. Chief Ison said the police could not determine whether Mr. Dicken had a gun permit, but that he carried his Glock 9mm handgun legally under state constitutional law. “This young man, the Good Samaritan of Greenwood, acted within seconds, stopped the shooter and saved countless lives,” Mayor Mark Myers said Monday. Officers executed a search warrant Sunday night at a Greenwood apartment where the gunman lived alone, discovering a laptop computer and a can of butane inside the oven, which had been left on high. The laptop had been damaged by the heat but would be analyzed, the chief said. Police are also trying to recover data from a wet cell phone they believe the gunman placed on a toilet in the mall’s bathroom. Greenwood, a town of about 63,000, has been rocked by the shooting. “I don’t want to be among the mayors who have to share these statements, but, unfortunately, I am,” Mr. Myers said. “I am saddened by these senseless killings and pained by the scars left behind on the victims and our community.” Hours after the mall shooting, four people were shot, one fatally, at an unrelated vigil at a park in Beech Grove, nine miles north of Greenwood.
