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Police laud actions of man who killed Indiana mall attacker

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Greenwood Police Chief James Ison speak during a press conference at the Greenwood City Center in Greenwood, Ind., Monday, July 18, 2022. Police say three people were fatally shot and two were injured, including a 12-year-old girl, after Jonathan Douglas Sapirman, 20, opened fire with a rifle in a food court and an armed civilian shot and killed him.
  • Photo: AP Photo/Michael Conroy

GREENWOOD, Ind. — Authorities say a gunman who shot five people at a suburban Indianapolis shopping mall, killing three of them before a shopper shot and killed him, was a 20-year-old local man who was apparently facing eviction.

Greenwood Police Chief James Ison said at a news conference Monday that Jonathan Sapirman, of Greenwood, began firing after leaving a bathroom at the Greenwood Park Mall shortly before it closed Sunday evening.

He says Sapirman continued shooting people until 22-year-old Elisjsha Dicken, of Seymour, shot and killed him.

Authorities say Dicken was shopping at the mall with his girlfriend and that he acted heroically. Ison says investigators are still trying to determine a motive, but that Sapirman’s relatives say he was facing eviction.

The image provided on Monday, July 18, 2022 by the Greenwood Police Department shows Jonathan Douglas Sapirman, 20, who police say fatally shot two people, Sunday, July 17, after he opened fire with a rifle in a food court and before an armed civilian shot and killed him at the Greenwood Park Mall in Greenwood, Ind. (AP Photo/Greenwood Police Department via AP) AP
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Reginald Hardwick

Reginald Hardwick is the News & Public Affairs Director at Illinois Public Media. He oversees daily newscasts and online stories. He also manages The 21st Show, a live, weekday talk show that airs on six NPR stations throughout Illinois. He is the executive producer of IPM's annual environmental TV special "State of Change." And he is the co-creator of Illinois Soul, IPM's Black-focused audio service that launched in February 2024. Before arriving at IPM in 2019, he served as News Director at WKAR in East Lansing and spent 17 years as a TV news producer and manager at KXAS, the NBC-owned station in Dallas/Fort Worth. Reginald is the recipient of three Edward R. Murrow regional awards, seven regional Emmy awards, and multiple honors from the National Association of Black Journalists. Born in Vietnam, Reginald grew up in Colorado and is a graduate of the University of Northern Colorado. Email: rh14@illinois.edu Twitter: @RNewsIPM