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Police say Allen shooting witness who said he helped victims isn't credible

May 15, 2023, 9:29 PM
1:53
A law enforcement officer guards the entrance to a shopping center after a shooting, May 6, 2023, in Allen, Texas.
Lm Otero/AP
Police in Allen, Texas, where eight people were killed in a shooting at an outdoor mall earlier this month, say a man who said he tried to help some shooting victims is "not a credible witness."
There were discrepancies in what the witness, Steven Spainhouer, told several media outlets, the Allen Police Department said in a press release Friday. On his Facebook page, Spainhouer disputed the statement by police.
"Inconsistencies between these public accounts and investigative facts led Allen Police Department to conduct a follow-up interview," it went on. "During the interview, detectives determined that Mr. Spainhouer is not a credible incident witness."
Spainhouer said he arrived at the Allen Premium Outlets on May 6 just after the shooting and immediately encountered wounded people. He also said he tried to perform CPR on two victims.
"I was on the phone and I started counting bodies," he told "Good Morning America."
He recounted the conversation he had with an emergency operator: "I said, 'I've got seven bodies, I need seven ambulances.' She said, 'I don't know if I have that many.' I said, 'However many you can get.'"
Spainhouer, according to Allen police, arrived at the scene between 3:44 and 3:52 p.m. and "was not first on the scene, nor was he on the property while gunfire was occurring."
Allen police also said Spainhouer didn't perform CPR or administer first aid.
He also didn't "move a deceased mother who was covering a live child," the Allen PD said.
In a statement posted Friday to his Facebook page, Spainhouer said he was "hurt and disappointed" by the press release.
"First of all, I have never said I heard gunshots at the Allen Outlet Mall," he wrote, also adding: "I did not move any victims, except the first one I found to check on her."
When asked for comment, Spainhouer directed ABC News to what he wrote on Facebook.
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