caramesin.com – A teen was killed in a shooting at the Mall of America on Friday, police said, leaving shoppers in a panic at the nation’s largest mall just before the weekend closes.
Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges said the victim was a 19-year-old man. During the shooting at the Nordstrom mall location, a bystander’s jacket was hit by a bullet.
It looked as if there was some sort of feud between the two groups, and at one point someone pulled out a gun and shot the victim multiple times. The whole incident lasted about 30 seconds.
Hodges asked the armed man and other people involved in the conflict to hand themselves over to the police. He also warned the public not to help the suspect avoid being arrested.
“If someone helps these people, it means buy them a good meal and take them out,” he said. “We’ll lock you up with them.”
mall of america shooting video
Hodges said the mall is expected to reopen on Saturday but the Nordstrom store will remain closed.
The Bloomington Police Department responded to the shooting just before 8 p.m., the mall said in a statement. The lockdown lasted about an hour, and the mall tweeted that shopkeepers were being evicted.
Ambulance crews gathered in a snowy parking lot, and police could be seen posting yellow security tape near the Nordstrom store.
Videos posted on social media showed shoppers hiding in stores, and a notice at the mall warned people to take shelter.
Some videos show shoppers running for cover after hearing a loud bang. The reported shootings came as malls and malls across the United States saw an influx of customers in the days leading up to Christmas.
1 dead in shooting inside Mall of America
Jenny Hefty of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and her 16-year-old daughter had just taken the escalator to the second floor of the mall across from the Nordstrom store when people started running and yelling at them. Her daughter thought she heard shots, though she Hafti didn’t.
“At first we thought they were playing a prank,” she told The Associated Press on Friday night. “Why are these children running beside us? It was the same thing. »
Retailers began slamming their doors and her husband said to run towards them as armed guards ran towards Nordstrom, where Hefty was testing perfume about 20 minutes earlier.
The trio rushed to a hotel in a shopping center and desperately tried to reach the 18-year-old daughter, 21-year-old son and their friends on cell phones. They were closed in stores or moved to safer locations as malls closed.
The family, who often travel four hours to get to the mall, were in town Saturday for the Minnesota Vikings vs. the New York Giants football game.
“Surely we wanted to come early and do some Christmas shopping,” said Hafti.
The giants stayed at a hotel next to a shopping mall. Pat Hanlon, the team’s vice president of communications, said he believed some players were at the mall at the time of the shooting.
“Everyone is back to the hotel debriefing,” Hanlon said Friday night. Since its opening in 1992, the shopping mall has been a tourist destination and community gathering place. Shoppers generally do not have to pass through metal detectors, although guns are prohibited on the premises. The mall said in October that it was testing a “weapon detection system” at one of its entrances.
Last New Year’s Eve, after an alleged shooting at a shopping complex outside Minneapolis led to some shoppers fleeing and apparently injuring two of him during an altercation. The mall was shut down in August. Representatives from Bloomington and Nordstrom did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
