‘It was an assault weapon’: El Paso state Rep. says Texas massacre suspect is a lone male

Saturday's mass shooting at an El Paso shopping mall is suspected to have been committed by a gunman with a semi-automatic rifle, a state representative explained on CNN.

Rep. Cesar Blanco (D-El Paso) was interviewed by CNN's Wolf Blitzer.

Just before the interview, the host played video of the incident in which the audio appears to document shooting with a semi-automatic weapon.

"We do know that 19 people have been shot, multiple folks are injured and filling in our level one trauma center," Blanco said. "It’s a Saturday, parents and children are in our shopping malls as well as Walmart preparing for back to school, so there’s a lot of traffic in these areas."

He said, "there have been multiple people shot -- north of 19 people -- and there is a suspect in custody. It is a male, and it no longer is an active shooting situation."

At an earlier briefing, police only identified the weapon as a "rifle."

"I do know that to my understanding that it was an assault weapon that was utilized, which could provide mass casualties," Blanco said.

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