6:30 p.m. update
‘Good Samaritan’ hires attorney, asks for respect for his privacy
In a statement on a law firm website, Good Samaritan Elisjsha Dicken is asking for privacy as the ongoing investigation into the Greenwood Park Mall continues.
The statement:
“Today the heroic good Samaritan of the Greenwood mall shooting, Elisjsha Dicken, retained the Law Office of Guy Relford. In response to multiple media inquiries, we are releasing the following statement:
I am proud to serve as Eli Dickens’ attorney and spokesperson. 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.
Guy A. Relford
The Law Office of Guy A. Relford”
Original story
GREENWOOD, Ind. — Greenwood police identified the victims of a shooting at the Greenwood Park Mall as Pedro Pineda, 56, and his wife, 37-year-old Rosa Mirian Rivera de Pineda and 30-year-old Victor Gomez.
Police identified the shooter as Jonathan Douglas Sapirman, 20, of Greenwood, who was pronounced deceased at the scene in the mall, killed by a “Good Samaritan” who was carrying a gun in the mall food court. Sapirman had a juvenile record, police said.
“His past incidents include offenses as a juvenile such as a fight at school and being a juvenile runaway. He does not drive. We believe that he walked to the Greenwood Park Mall last night,” Greenwood Police Chief Jim Ison said.
Police identified the Good Samaritan as Elisjsha “Eli” Dicken of Seymour, which is in Jackson County, not Bartholomew County as previously announced.
Police said Sapirman entered the mall at 4:54 p.m. Sunday and went to the food court restroom where he stayed for about an hour, before leaving the restroom and shooting Gomez near the restroom.
Then Sapirman shot and killed the Pineda couple who were having dinner in the food court, and also wounding a 22-year-old woman in the food court in the leg. A bullet fragment hit a 12-year-old as she was fleeing to outside the mall, police said.
At 5:57 p.m., Dicken confronted the shooter near the food court restroom area with a pistol, while motioning for people to go the opposite direction behind him, police said. Dicken fired several rounds at at Sapirman, who attempted to retreat to the restroom and then fell to the ground.
Sapirman brought three guns with him to the mall: a Sig Sauer Model M400 5.56-caliber rifle, purchased in March; an M&P 5.56mm rifle, purchased in March 2021; and a Glock 33 pistol. He also had more than 100 rounds of ammunition, according to Ison.
The gun used in the shooting was the Sig Sauer rifle, Ison says.
Police determined there were 24 rifle rounds fired, and 10 rounds fired by Dicken.
Police said Dicken’s actions were “nothing short of heroic,” in that he had no police or military training prior to confronting the shooter.
Police said Bartholomew County 911 emergency center received about 50 calls routed to them from Johnson County as individuals inside the mall called for help. Two Bartholomew County Sheriff deputies who were heading into work from north of Taylorsville were immediately dispatched to Greenwood to assist, police said.
Sapirman had been practicing shooting at Range USA in Greenwood for the past two years, purchasing the guns in Greenwood.
Police said Sapirman resigned from a warehouse position in May and police were serving a subpeona in Greenwood at his residence to determine if he was being evicted.
Police said they conducted a search of Sapirman’s home at Polo Run Apartments where the oven was found to be on at a high temperature, with a laptop and a can of butane inside it.
For more on this story, see Tuesday’s Republic.
