The identities of the three victims and the shooter, as well as the “good Samaritan” who killed him, were released as the investigation continues into the Sunday Greenwood Park Mall shooting in Indiana.
During a news conference at the Greenwood City Center Monday afternoon, Chief James Ison, of the Greenwood Police Department, identified the deceased shooter as 20-year-old Johnathan Douglas Sapirman, from Greenwood. He was shot and killed by an armed bystander.
The shooting at the Greenwood Park Mall took place in the food court Sunday at approximately 6:05 p.m. Johnson County Coroner Michael Pruitt identified the shooting victims who were killed as Victor Gomez, 30, and couple Rosa Rivera de Pineda, 37, and Pedro Pineda, 56.
Two injured were taken to an area hospital. They were identified as a 20-year-old female who was shot in the leg and a 12-year-old who received a minor wound from a deflected bullet.
It was confirmed the gunman fired 24 rounds from a rifle that was retrieved by officers. In addition to the rifle, a Glock handgun and 100 more rounds of ammunition were found on his person.
According to Fox59, Ison first released information that a 22-year-old civilian shot and killed the gunman two minutes after the time he opened fire on Sunday evening. Ison referred to the man as a “good Samaritan” who legally carried the gun that shot and killed the adult male shooter.
The Samaritan was later identified as 22-year-old Elisjsha Dicken. Ison said he asked for time and space before being contacted by the press but is cooperating with officers on the investigation.
Footage from the shooting showed that Dicken shot 10 rounds from his handgun, while motioning for citizens at the mall to exit behind him.
“Many more people would have died last night if a responsible, armed citizen hadn’t been present there last night,” Ison said.
After entering the mall, Sapirman headed straight to the bathroom and was there for over an hour before exiting the bathroom and opening fire.
“The most puzzling piece about this puzzle was the amount of time that he was in the bathroom,” Ison said. “We believe he was getting ready.”
Officials hope to gain information from a cellphone left in the toilet at the mall’s bathroom and a laptop found in the oven at Sapirman’s home during a raid.
The police department, FBI and a bomb unit raided the shooter’s apartment between midnight and 3 a.m. Monday, according to Fox59.
The laptop was found with butane in the apartment’s oven and had been damaged from the heat.
There is no information on why it was in the oven, only that the laptop has been sent to be analyzed at Quantico.
The shooter could have been facing eviction, officials said. He had a juvenile record of fighting and running away from home in his youth, according to police, who said it’s still unclear what his motivation was.
More information will be released by the Greenwood Police Department as information is extracted from the shooter’s laptop and cellphone.