Police shoot, kill "active shooter" at Houston strip mall

HOUSTON - Houston police say a shooter opened fire on moving traffic at a strip mall in the city’s southwest and that officers shot and killed the gunman.

A total of nine people were injured, one critically, interim Houston police chief Martha Montalvo said Monday.

The shootings began at about 6:30 a.m., Montalvo said. When the officers found the suspect, he began firing at them and police shot the him. The suspect, who lives in the neighborhood, died at the scene.

The alleged shooter was apparently a lawyer, and police are investigating whether issues at his law firm may have led to the shooting, officials said. Investigators haven’t yet released the suspect’s identity.

Montalvo said she believed the gunman fired indiscriminately, apparently from a stationary location at the moving cars.

Three victims were treated at the scene and released, and six were transported to the hospital. Of those transported, one person was in critical condition and one person was in serious condition, Montalvo said.

Numerous weapons were found at the scene, and a bomb-squad robot is looking at a car that’s believed to be the shooter’s, a Porsche. CBS affiliate KHOU reports the vehicle is parked in the lot of the housing complex where the suspect lives. Some weapons were found in the suspect’s car, Montalvo said.

Investigators were expected to next clear the suspect’s apartment, Montalvo said.

KHOU reports that several vehicles parked near the scene had bullet holes and busted windows. The injured patients were said to be drivers or passengers in the vehicles that were struck.

The shooting comes days after a shooting at a Washington state mall by a 20-year-old that left five people dead. On Sept. 17, a 20-year-old man stabbed10 people at a Minnesota mall before being shot to death by an off-duty police officer.