File Photo: Governor of Louisiana Bobby Jindal (Reuters)
Indian-American Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal has called for a prayer for the victims of the shooting at a movie theatre in his state that killed three people, including the shooter.
The gunman, according to the police, was a 58-year old white man who opened fire from his weapon at a movie theatre in Louisiana yesterday evening.
Later he shot himself, the Lafayette City Police Chief Jim Craft told reporters.
Mr Jindal, who has been busy in his presidential campaign most of the week rushed to the scene to personally lead the post-shooting effort.
"I'm on my way to Lafayette right now. Please say a prayer for the victims at Grand Theatre and their families," Mr Jindal wrote on twitter.
At least seven people have been injured in the shootout, some of them with life threatening wounds, the police said.
The shooter died of self-inflicted wounds. The police say they have located the shooter's car across the street from the theatre parking lot and out of an "abundance of caution" called in the bomb squad.
"The best thing anybody can do right now is to think about them, pray for them, shower them with your love is the most important thing we will get through this," Mr Jindal told reporters during a news conference.
"We will get through this. We are a resilient community. This is an awful night for Lafayette. This is an awful night for Louisiana. This is an awful night for the United States," he said.
Mr Jindal visited one of the three hospitals treating injured persons. According to him, two teachers were in the theatre - one of them jumped in front of her colleague and was shot, but still managed to pull a fire alarm that alerted authorities.
"Even the worst of times bring out the best in people," he said.
Mr Jindal said the teacher, who was shot in the leg, saved other people's lives through her actions.
In an interview to BBC before the shooting, US President Barack Obama said his biggest frustration was the failure to pass "common-sense gun safety laws".
"Even in the face of repeated mass killings. And you know, if you look at the number of Americans killed since 9/11 by terrorism, it's less than 100. If you look at the number that have been killed by gun violence, it's in the tens of thousands," he said.
"And for us not to be able to resolve that issue has been something that is distressing. But it is not something that I intend to stop working on in the remaining 18 months," Mr Obama said.