22-year-old Elisjsha Dicken, the man who shot and killed the mass shooter at the Indiana Greenwood Park Mall, was armed because of the “Constitutional Carry” law signed two weeks before the incident.
Dicken was in the Greenwood Park Mall in Indiana when the shooter, Jonathan Douglas Sapirman, 20, started shooting people around 5:56 p.m on July 17.
Those killed are 56-year-old Pedro Pineda, his wife 37-year-old Rosa Mirian Rivera de Pineda, and 30-year-old Victor Gomez, WTHR reports.
Sapirman entered the mall at 4:54 p.m. and immediately entered the bathroom at the food court. He stayed there for an hour and two minutes. He had two rifles, a handgun, and several magazines of ammunition.
As he went out of the bathroom, the 20-year-old started shooting at mallgoers.
Police said Sapirman fired 24 rounds during the shooting, according to WTHR. He first killed Gomez then proceeded to move into the foodcourt and shot the Pinedas. A 22-year-old was wounded in the leg, and a 12-year-old was hit with a bullet fragment from behind.
At 5:57 p.m., Dicken fired on Sapirman. He shot 10 rounds that hit the attacker an unreported number of times.
The 20-year-old shooter attempted to retreat into the bathroom but never made it and collapsed on the floor.
“His actions were nothing short of heroic. He engaged the gunman from quite a distance with a handgun. Was very proficient in that, was tactically sound, and as he moved to close in on the suspect, he was also motioning for people to exit behind him,” Greenwood Chief of Police Jim Ison said about Dicken’s actions.
“Many people would have died last night if not for a responsible armed citizen that took action very quickly within the first two minutes of this shooting.”
Dicken didn’t have any significant training or military background. He only learned to shoot from his grandfather. He was carrying a firearm under the new “Constitutional Carry” law.
“Constitutional carry means that the state’s law does not prohibit citizens who can legally possess a firearm from carrying handguns, (openly and/or in a concealed manner) thus no state permit is required. Sometimes, constitutional carry may be conditional such as in those states that have no laws prohibiting the open carry of a handgun but which require a permit to carry the handgun concealed,” according to the United States Concealed Carry Association.
Watch: