Authorities identified the “Good Samaritan” on Monday who took down the shooter at an Indiana mall the day before.
Police said 22-year-old Elisjsha Dicken was in the mall in Greenwood, Ind., with his girlfriend when the alleged gunman, 20-year-old Jonathan Douglas Sapirman, began shooting at approximately 6 p.m. on Sunday. Within minutes, Dicken pulled out his gun, legal under the “constitutional carry” law, and fired ten rounds to stop the attacker.
Sapirman killed three people and injured two others, and police said “many more people” would have died if not for Dicken. The victims of the shooting were identified as a couple from Indianapolis, Pedro Pineda and Rosa Mirian Rivera de Pineda, and Victor Gomez.
Sapirman brought several firearms into the mall and waited over an hour in a bathroom before emerging to shoot in the food court, according to police. He fired 24 rounds, also injuring a 22-year-old woman and a 12-year-old girl, 13News reported.
Dicken pushed his girlfriend to safety before bringing out his gun to stop the gunman, according to an interview given by the girlfriend’s grandmother. Dicken did not have military or police experience.
“His actions were nothing short of heroic. He engaged the gunman from quite a distance with a handgun — was very proficient in that, was very tactically sound, and as he moved to close in on the suspect, he was also motioning for people to exit behind him,” Greenwood Police Chief Jim Ison said.
Indiana governor Eric Holcomb also called Dicken’s actions “heroic.”
“I join all Hoosiers in being grateful for the quick, heroic actions taken by an individual citizen and first responders on Sunday evening in Greenwood, surely preventing further loss of life and injuries,” Holcomb said.
Authorities searched an apartment in connection with the shooter and found the oven to be on at a high temperature with a laptop and a can of butane in it, 13News reported. People close to Sapirman reported that he had recently begun shooting at a local shooting range before the attack.