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Allen mass shooting: How a heroic mother shielded her child with her body as gunman fired at her

'It's not a situation I would wish upon anybody; it's just unfathomable to see carnage,' said a first responder

ALLEN, TEXAS: In yet another mass shooting, a lone gunman shot dead nine people and injured at least seven others on Saturday, May 6. The gunfire erupted at the Allen Premium Outlets, an outdoor outlet mall in a suburb located north of Dallas. 

An Allen Police Department officer, who coincidentally happened to be in the vicinity on an unrelated call, intervened and successfully shot dead the shooter, bringing an end to the shooting spree. In the aftermath, first responder Steven Spainhouer shared a heart-wrenching account of the Texas shooting from the distressing moment when his own son called him from the mall amid the sound of gunfire, including the heroic act of a mother who used her own body as a shield to protect her child during the terrifying ordeal. 

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The shooter emerged from a car and began firing around 3.36 pm on Saturday, first responder Spainhouer quickly took action to help the victims, after he received a call from his son who worked at the mall's H&M store, and informed him about the gunshots. "When the multiple shots happened, my heart just dropped," Spainhouer told CBS. A dashcam video posted online captured the shooter exiting the car and targeting pedestrians on the sidewalk. More than 30 shots could be heard as the vehicle capturing the footage drove away.

Spainhouer arrived at the mall before any other first responders. "I never imagined in 100 years I would be thrust into the position of being the first responder on the site to take care of people," he said. Spainhouer recalled encountering a girl crouched down and hiding in the bushes. Sadly, she had sustained fatal injuries. "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," added Spainhour. 

'No one can see what we saw today and not be affected by it!'

Spainhouer also assisted a child who survived the shooting because his heroic mother shielded him with her own body. "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," he recalled.

Spainhouer acknowledged that this mass casualty incident would forever impact him. "No one can see what we saw today and not be affected by it," he said. "It's not a situation I would wish upon anybody; it's just unfathomable to see carnage." Furthermore, before the shooter was killed, he claimed the lives of seven individuals. Nine victims were transported to the hospital, and two of them later succumbed to their injuries. As of Saturday night, three of the injured remained in critical condition. The identity of the gunman remains unknown. Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray, an alumnus of Allen High School, described the shooting as "sickening."