Walt Disney Television/Paula LoboAs a mass shooting unfolded Saturday in El Paso, TX, Blink-182‘s Mark Hoppus unfortunately had a front row seat.
At about 10 a.m. local time, police received 911 calls reporting an active shooter in a Walmart near the Cielo Vista Mall. At 12:11 p.m. local time the police tweeted that they’d received reports of multiple shooters. These conflicting reports led to Blink-182’s being warned not to exit their hotel.
First, Hoppus tweeted, “We are locked down in our hotel in el paso. over the intercom system they just announced that there are reports of another active shooter directly across the street at a location different from the first shootings.”
He continued, “We were leaving breakfast when our security texted that there was an active shooter at the mall we were headed to. saw dozens of police cars on the freeway and surface streets. helicopters. we got back to the hotel and turned on the news to see what was happening.”
“Then, the intercom said there are reports of another shooting across the street at the bassett place mall,” he added. “i don’t see or hear police or helicopters so hopefully it’s just an over abundance of caution and someone got the malls confused. so terrible.”
At a press conference held minutes ago, police said they didn’t believe there were multiple suspects. They have one suspect in custody; there are multiple fatalities and multiple victims.
A check of an El Paso map appears to indicate that the Bassett Place Mall, which Mark said his hotel was across the street from, is near Gateway Blvd. West. The Walmart and the Cielo Vista Mall are on Gateway Blvd. East.
Blink is scheduled to play a show in El Paso on Sunday night. It’s not known if that show will continue as scheduled.
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