Seymour man credited as hero in Sunday Greenwood mall shooting
A Seymour man is being identified as the Good Samaritan who stopped the mass shooting last night that left four dead at Greenwood Park Mall.
At a press conference this afternoon, Greenwood Police Chief Jim Ison said that without the actions of 22-year-old Elisjsha Dicken, the incident could have been even worse.
Ison said that the gunman, identified as 20-year-old Jonathan D. Sapirman of Greenwood, came to the mall with two rifles, several magazines with more than 100 rounds and a handgun. The rifles had been broken down and were carried inside a bag. Sapirman first went to the restroom near the food court where he left one rifle and the bag inside, dropped his cell phone into the water in a toilet. and then came out the door shooting at just before 6 p.m. He fired 24 rounds, killing three people and injuring two others.
Within two minutes of the start of Sapirman’s shooting spree, he was confronted by Dicken who was carrying a concealed 9mm pistol. Dicken, wearing shorts and a T-shirt, engaged the shooter at what Ison described as a long range for a pistol, hitting Sapirman several times. Sapirman tried to retreat back to the restroom, but fell to the ground and died.
Dicken announced himself to mall security as the person who returned fire, and he was handcuffed, taken into custody by the Greenwood police and questioned at the police station. Video evidence showed the entire incident and backed up Dicken’s story.
Police say that Dicken does not appear to have any military or police training. However he had great accuracy returning fire with 10 shots. He also waived people to safety behind him while returning fire.
Police say autopsies will be performed tomorrow on Sapirman and the three victims, Victor Gomez, 30, Pedro Pineda, 56, and his wife Rosa Rivera de Pineda, 37, all of Indianapolis.
A search of Sapirman’s apartment by the Greenwood SWAT team revealed that his laptop had been placed into the oven set to a high temperature along with a can of butane. The SWAT team fell back and allowed the bomb squad to clear the apartment.
Police say Sapirman had a minor criminal record as a juvenile including a fight at school and being declared a runaway. He lost his job in May and police are investigating a report that he was being evicted from his apartment. So far, police have no motive. The phone and laptop are being analyzed by federal authorities to see if any information can be retrieved from them.
Ison said that the Johnson County dispatch center was overwhelmed by calls from the mall and those excess calls were forwarded to Bartholomew County’s dispatch center which fielded more than 50 calls. Bartholomew County deputies also responded to the mall to assist at the scene.
Ison said that the police have recovered many items of personal property left by those fleeing from the mall during the incident. People can pick those up at the Greenwood Police Training Center starting tomorrow.
