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Shooting in Killeen today: 5 injured after fleeing driver crashes into JCPenney at Texas Mall; suspect was shot, police say

Shooting in Killeen today: 5 injured after fleeing driver crashes into JCPenney at Texas Mall; suspect was shot, police say

KILLEEN, Texas– A man drove into a Texas mall after a 19-mile police chase, striking four people before being fatally shot by responding law enforcement, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.

A police officer shot and killed the suspect after the pursuit took him into the mall, Texas Department of Public Safety Sgt. Bryan Washko said during a press conference Saturday.

A Texas Highway Patrol trooper attempted to stop a pickup truck around 5 p.m. Central time, Washko said.

The man driving the vehicle was called because he may have been driving drunk, Washko said.

After the suspect exited the highway, he entered the Killeen Mall parking lot, where he walked through the glass doors of the main entrance of a JC Penney store, according to Washko.

Video shows police on the scene after a man drove into a Killeen shopping center, injuring five people. The suspect is dead.

“The suspect walked through the doors and continued through the JCPenney store, striking several people,” he said.

Four people were injured by the van as it drove through the mall and were taken to the hospital and a fifth went to the hospital alone, Washko said.

Troopers and local police followed the truck through the mall and shot the suspect to end the threat, Washko said.

“There are people out here running errands for their families, their children, their friends, their loved ones, and those kinds of things that we don’t like to see, obviously, and we pray for their recovery,” Washko said about the victims.

Killeen police spokeswoman Ofelia Miramontez told the Killeen Daily Herald “a chase came in from Belton,” a town about 20 miles east of Killeen.

Killeen is about 150 miles south of Dallas and is home to the Army’s Fort Cavazos, formerly Fort Hood.

CNN’s Tyler Galgano and Sarah Dewberry contributed to this report.

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