The gunman, whom authorities said they thought acted alone and whose motive was not yet known, was killed by a police officer after he began firing outside of the Allen Premium Outlets mall in Allen, Texas, the city's police chief Brian Harvey said at a press conference.

Allen fire department chief Jon Boyd told the same press conference that his department took at least nine victims with gunshot wounds to area hospitals.

Two of those people died at the hospital, Boyd said at a second press conference on Saturday. Three of the victims were in critical condition and four others were stable.

Medical City Healthcare, which runs 16 hospitals in the area, said in a statement that its trauma centers were treating eight of the wounded victims, who ranged in age from 5 to 61.

Collin County Judge Chris Hill, the top elected official in the county where Allen sits, praised police and other first responders at a press conference, but expressed deep anger with "those that would do evil in our community, in our backyard."

Separately, police in the nearby city of Frisco, Texas, said they had evacuated the Stonebriar mall late on Saturday after receiving reports of shots fired there. It was not yet clear if a shooting had actually taken place.

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