EL PASO, Texas — The 16-year-old suspect who is accused of fatally shooting a 17-year-old and wounding three others at Cielo Vista Mall, is beng charged with murder and aggravated assault, according to officials. 

Police in El Paso responded to a shooting last Wednesday at the Cielo Vista Mall, where a confrontation between two groups of teenagers broke out near the food court area. The confrontation escalated into a physical fight shortly before the suspect pulled out a handgun, according to authorities.

The shooting happened in a busy shopping area and across a large parking lot from a Walmart where 23 people were killed in a racist attack targeting Hispanic people in 2019. El Paso — with a largely Latino population of about 700,000 people — sits on the U.S. border with Mexico, where residents of both countries cross frequently.

“Today’s shooting at the Cielo Vista Mall has brought back traumatic memories for many of us. Please know you are not alone,” Democratic U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, whose district includes El Paso, said on Twitter.

She urged anyone who needed it to reach out to the city's crisis help line.

The United States has seen dozens of people killed in mass shootings so far in 2023, most recently Monday at Michigan State University, where three students were killed and five more were wounded. In January, 11 people were killed in the Los Angeles-area city of Monterey Park as they welcomed the Lunar New Year at a dance hall popular with older Asian Americans.

The FBI, which is assisting El Paso police in the investigation, set up a website where the public can share photos or video from the shooting: www.fbi.gov/cielovistamallshooting.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said in a tweet last Wednesday night that he had spoken to the mayor of El Paso and offered assistance from the Texas Department of Public and Safety and the Texas Division of Emergency Management.

In 2022, more than 600 mass shootings occurred in the U.S. in which at least four people were killed or wounded, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.