At least five people, including a police officer and an attacker, were killed in a shooting at a gas station in the US state of Missouri on Monday, the police said.
The police, in Springfield, said that they had first received a call about a shooting at 11:24 p.m. Sunday (local time), in the southeast area of the city, about 220 miles southwest of St. Louis, The New York Times reported.
While officers were responding, more reports followed about shootings at northern locations, and at about 11:43 pm (local time), a call came in at the Kum & Go gas station and convenience store on East Chestnut Highway, near Interstate 65.
“In essence, we had a roving active shooter moving from the south side of the city up,” Chief Paul Williams of the Springfield Police Department said in a news conference Monday.
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Callers told the police that a car had crashed at the scene and that someone with a gun had entered the store and started firing at customers and employees.
The first two officers who arrived at the scene, Christopher Walsh and Josiah Overton, were “immediately fired upon by the suspect,” Williams said in a statement. Both officers were injured.
The police did not identify the other victims or give any details about the attacker.
Jasmine Bailey, a spokeswoman for the Springfield Police Department, was quoted as saying that the police did not yet know what may have motivated the shooter, but believed the attacker was shooting at different locations while heading north toward the gas station.
“We are still actively investigating multiple crime scenes and dealing with grieving over the loss of one of our own,” the police added.
(With ANI inputs)