Three dead in shooting at mall in Maryland: police
By Bill Trott COLUMBIA, Maryland Sat Jan 25, 2014 2:28pm EST
(Reuters) - Three people died in a shooting at a large shopping mall outside Baltimore on Saturday, police said, adding that the suspected gunman apparently killed himself.
Howard County Police said they believed the mall in Columbia, Maryland, was secure and they were contacting shoppers to help them leave the complex.
An emergency 911 call was received at about 11:15 a.m. EST (1615 GMT) reporting that shots had been fired at the Mall of Columbia, a sprawling shopping center with about 200 stores about 30 miles north of Washington, D.C.
"We had officers quickly get into the area and we were able to identify three victims at an upper level store in the Columbia Mall, one of those victims appears to be the shooter," Howard County Police Chief Bill McMahon told reporters.
"We are very confident that it was a single shooter and there are no other shooters in the mall," he said.
McMahon said police did not immediately know the identities of the dead and did not know the motive of the shooter.
"So right now we still have many, many people still in the mall who have secured themselves inside stores," he said, adding that officers were helping people leave the building.
Colin Reddy, who works at the mall, told CNN he heard about eight or nine shots in all.
"We thought it was construction because there's a lot of construction going on at the mall right now. Then I heard it again. Like 'boom, boom, boom'. And then everybody started running," he said.
Reddy said he and the other employees closed the store's gate and waited in a back room for police to arrive.
Tonya Broughton of Silver Spring, Maryland, said she and a friend were getting facials when they noticed other shoppers running.
"It was panic. We just headed for the nearest store, Victoria's Secret," she said, adding that the store's employees herded everyone to the rear of the store.
"They were very, nice, keeping us calm. They told us we were safe," she said.
The attack in Columbia follows a shooting at a New Jersey mall in November in which a gunman fired at least six shots without hitting anyone, sparking a mass evacuation of the complex, then killing himself.
(Reporting by Bill Trott; Additional reporting by Colleen Jenkins and Victoria Cavaliere; Writing by Eric Beech; Editing by James Dalgleish and David Gregorio)
By Bill Trott COLUMBIA, Maryland Sat Jan 25, 2014 2:28pm EST
(Reuters) - Three people died in a shooting at a large shopping mall outside Baltimore on Saturday, police said, adding that the suspected gunman apparently killed himself.
Howard County Police said they believed the mall in Columbia, Maryland, was secure and they were contacting shoppers to help them leave the complex.
An emergency 911 call was received at about 11:15 a.m. EST (1615 GMT) reporting that shots had been fired at the Mall of Columbia, a sprawling shopping center with about 200 stores about 30 miles north of Washington, D.C.
"We had officers quickly get into the area and we were able to identify three victims at an upper level store in the Columbia Mall, one of those victims appears to be the shooter," Howard County Police Chief Bill McMahon told reporters.
"We are very confident that it was a single shooter and there are no other shooters in the mall," he said.
McMahon said police did not immediately know the identities of the dead and did not know the motive of the shooter.
"So right now we still have many, many people still in the mall who have secured themselves inside stores," he said, adding that officers were helping people leave the building.
Colin Reddy, who works at the mall, told CNN he heard about eight or nine shots in all.
"We thought it was construction because there's a lot of construction going on at the mall right now. Then I heard it again. Like 'boom, boom, boom'. And then everybody started running," he said.
Reddy said he and the other employees closed the store's gate and waited in a back room for police to arrive.
Tonya Broughton of Silver Spring, Maryland, said she and a friend were getting facials when they noticed other shoppers running.
"It was panic. We just headed for the nearest store, Victoria's Secret," she said, adding that the store's employees herded everyone to the rear of the store.
"They were very, nice, keeping us calm. They told us we were safe," she said.
The attack in Columbia follows a shooting at a New Jersey mall in November in which a gunman fired at least six shots without hitting anyone, sparking a mass evacuation of the complex, then killing himself.
(Reporting by Bill Trott; Additional reporting by Colleen Jenkins and Victoria Cavaliere; Writing by Eric Beech; Editing by James Dalgleish and David Gregorio)