Armed civilian shot Greenwood Park Mall suspect 8 times

The preliminary autopsy results show the Greenwood Park Mall mass shooting suspect was shot eight times by a man police are calling an armed bystander.

The Greenwood Park Mall shooting occurred shortly around 6 p.m. Sunday. Four people died, including the suspect, Jonathan Douglas Sapirman, 20, of Greenwood. The deceased victims were identified Monday afternoon as Victor Gomez, 30, and husband and wife Pedro Pineda, 56, and Rosa Mirian Rivera de Pineda, 37, all of Indianapolis. Two others were wounded in the shooting.

All three victims died from multiple gunshot wounds, according to preliminary autopsy results released by the Johnson County Coroner’s Office Tuesday afternoon.

Sapirman was shot eight times and none of the shots were self-inflicted, officials said.

He was shot by Elisjsha Dicken, 22, of Seymour, who police are calling a good Samaritan. Dicken was shopping at the mall with his girlfriend when the shooting occurred. He was lawfully carrying a handgun, police say.

According to an official timeline released by police, the shooter entered the mall at an entrance near the food court at 4:54 p.m., where he was seen on surveillance video walking into the mall with a bag, where officers say they believe he stored his weapons. The shooter went immediately to the bathrooms located near the food court, and stayed there for one hour and two minutes, Greenwood Police Chief Jim Ison said during a press conference Monday.

During this time, it is likely he was preparing for the shooting. Police say the shooter likely entered the mall with a SigSauer Model 400M 5.56 long rifle broken into pieces and stored in a bag that was left behind at the mall bathroom. Police also found two additional weapons, but only the rifle was used in the shooting. All three guns were legally purchased within the last two years, Ison said.

Officers also found a cell phone in a toilet in the bathroom, and police believe the shooter placed it there prior to opening fire, he said.

When the shooter exits the bathroom about an hour later, he opens fire, first striking Gomez, who was outside the restroom. He then pointed his rifle into the food court and fatally shot Pedro Pineda and Rosa Mirian Rivera de Pineda, Ison said.

He then fired more rounds into the food court, striking a 22-year-old female. The woman is recovering from a leg wound at Eskenazi Hospital in Indianapolis, Ison said.

A bullet fragment is believed to have ricocheted off a wall struck and struck a 12 year-old female who was running away from the gunfire. She was treated for a the wound at an Indianapolis hospital, and doctors removed a bullet fragment from the victim, he said.

Sapirman was then confronted by Dicken, who then fired several rounds at him. Sapirman tried to retreat to the restrooms, but he was shot and fell to the ground, Ison said.

Ison told reporters Monday that it was two minutes from the time the shooter opened fire until he was fatally shot. However, in a correction issued Tuesday afternoon, Ison said it was only 15 seconds.

“This error was simply the result of misreading notes during the conference,” he said.

Two of the guns used are described as AR-15 style semi-automatic rifles, based on product descriptions.

Twenty-four rounds were shot by the shooter, and 10 rounds were shot by Dicken. There were dozens of people in the mall at the time of the shooting, Ison said Monday afternoon.

Dicken, who police believe had no police training or military background, was proficient with the handgun and engaged the gunman from a distance.

“I will say his actions were nothing short of heroic,” Ison said.

On Monday evening, Guy A. Relford, Dicken’s attorney and spokesperson, issued a statement praising Dicken’s actions, calling him a “true American hero.”

“He is a true American hero who saved countless lives during a horrific event that could have been so much worse if not for Eli’s courage, preparedness and willingness to protect others. Because we want to respect the on-going criminal investigation by the Greenwood Police Department and take time to honor the three innocent lives lost, we won’t be making any substantive comments on Sunday’s events until after the authorities’ investigation is closed. In the interim, we ask that you respect the privacy of Eli and his family,” Relford said in a Monday evening statement.

Police have not found any evidence that Sapirman was connected to the Greenwood Park Mall, and do not believe he knew the victims. There is also no evidence at this time that the shooting was racially motivated, Ison said. However, the people who were killed were Hispanic.

Law enforcement has also not found any evidence of a note or message left behind on the shooter’s cell phone. The phone is currently in the custody of an FBI’s forensic team which is working to dry out the phone to recover information, Ison said.

“Right now, we have no motive … His family members that we spoke to, they were just as surprised as everyone else was. They said there were no indicators that he was violent or unstable,” Ison said.

Early Monday morning, police and federal agents searched the shooter’s apartment at Polo Run Apartments, 800 Kings Mill Road, Greenwood, where he lived alone. The police recovered a laptop that was found in the oven, which was turned on.

The FBI took possession of the laptop and will attempt to extract data from it at their lab in Quantico, Virginia. It will take time for the agency to analyze the phone and the laptop, FBI Indianapolis Special Agent in Charge Herb Stapleton told reporters Monday. There’s no guarantee that data from the phone will be recovered, and for the laptop, analysts will have to review it to see what is technically possible for them to do, he said.

He told reporters it was too early to say if the shooter fit a specific profile, Stapleton said.

Correction: July 20, 2022 at 10:00 a.m.

A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the caliber of the shooter’s weapon. The rifle was 5.56, not .556.