Officer shoots person at Walmart store in El Paso, Texas: media reports

[October 24, 2019]    (Reuters) - A police officer shot and injured one person at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, late on Wednesday night, a local ABC network affiliate reported.

There were no reports of deaths and the area around the store was blocked off to keep people leaving or entering, local TV stations reported. The El Paso Police Department was not immediately available to comment.

A different Walmart in the same city was the scene of one of the nation's deadliest mass shootings on Aug. 3, when 22 people were killed and 26 wounded. Police say that the Texas man accused of the killing, Patrick Crusius, 21, was targeting Mexicans.

That attack and other mass shootings in the United States have renewed the debate on gun control.

Crusius pleaded not guilty in his first court appearance this month.

(Reporting by Subrat Patnaik in Bengaluru and Rich McKay in Atlanta; Editing by Gerry Doyle)

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