Violence erupted at a suburban mall in Columbia, Md., on Saturday morning, after a shooter emerged from among weekend shoppers. Police confirmed that three people were left dead, including one believed to be the shooter.
Howard County Police Chief William J. McMahon said that the three were killed in and outside an upper level skate store at the Mall in Columbia and that authorities are still working to unravel details of the shooting as well as to determine the identity of the shooter, who was identified only as being a man.
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Violence erupted at a suburban mall in Columbia, Md. on Saturday morning, after a shooter emerged from among weekend shoppers. Police confirmed that three people were left dead, including one believed to be the shooter.
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The Post's Emma Brown reports from the scene of the Mall in Columbia shooting.
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Police identified the victims as Brianna Benlolo, 21, of College Park, and Tyler Johnson, 25, of Ellicott City, both employees of a skate shop called Zumiez on the malls upper level. Benlolos family members, reached by telephone Saturday evening, declined to comment.
McMahon said a motive for the shootings still is unclear.
There are still a lot of details we need to confirm, McMahon said, adding that police combed the mall for additional evidence but that police believe there were no additional shooters. Police searched the entire mall and have cleared it, though the mall is not scheduled to reopen this evening as police work through what officials described as a very large crime scene.
Police said a gun found near the suspected shooter was a shotgun and that the shootings took place at a skate shop called Zumiez on the malls upper level. They said Saturday afternoon that they had identified one of the victims and are working to notify family members before releasing the victims name. The two people who were killed by the shooter were an adult male and an adult female in their 20s, both of whom were employees at the store, McMahon said.
Howard County officials said five people who were injured at the mall Saturday morning are being treated at a local hospital, including one police said suffered a gunshot wound to the foot.
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The mall, a suburban shopping center about 25 miles northeast of Washington, went on lockdown after police received reports of an active shooter at about 11:15 a.m. Shoppers and employees huddled in stores after the sound of gunshots ripped through the malls hallways on a cold morning.
Laura McKindles said she heard eight to 10 shots as she worked a travel timeshare booth on the second level overlooking the food court. At first she thought it was construction.
People were yelling, Someones got a gun, she said. They were screaming.
McKindles ran across the corridor into a perfume store and hid in a back room for about 90 minutes until police told them it was safe to emerge. She was with three other workers from her stall and the store
I was praying, she said. I was thinking about my family, my dog. She had left her cellphone at the kiosk and couldnt call anyone to tell them she was okay until after she got out.
I think this country is in a lot if trouble, said McKindles, who moved to Columbia from Cockeysville, north of Baltimore, two months ago. I mean, what possesses someone to, on a Saturday afternoon, in this cold, to come to a mall and shoot people? Why? I just cant understand what motivates that.
Police said that they have confirmed that the suspected shooter was located near a gun and ammunition but that they have not yet identified the person because they have been treating his body carefully because, though obviously dead, he appeared to be laden with ammunition. McMahon said police did not fire any weapons during the incident and that they believe the two victims were killed before the shooter shot himself.
Workers at stores in the mall said the building was on lockdown almost immediately after the shooting. An employee at Rafets Hairmasters, who declined to be identified, said she heard the shooting had taken place near the malls Sears store, which is adjacent to the food court.
Roger Aseneta, a manager at Auntie Annes pretzel shop, said he heard what he immediately recognized as gunshots around 11:15 a.m. He ushered his employees inside and locked the doors behind them. They went into a back room where, on a surveillance camera, they could see people running and screaming in the food court outside.
Its a case of people running for safety, he said. Its a really terrible thing. I never thought I would experience this. ... I was shaking.
Aseneta, 52, said the gunshots sounded like booms and he heard five or six of them from directly overhead of his shop on the upper level. He guessed that they came from a clothing shop on the upper level called Zumiez.
At 12:30 p.m., police led frightened shoppers and workers out of the mall entrance at the food court. Many were without coats, and police and paramedics ushered those without cars, many shivering and some holding babies, into warm vans from Howard and Anne Arundel county fire departments. Some held hands and were crying.
Police officers guarded each entrance off Little Patuxent Parkway to keep people away from the nearly empty parking lots.
Solon Jimez was working at a beauty salon when he said he heard the gunshots. We saw people running, he said. It was very bad.
Candace Johnson was shopping in the malls Forever 21 store when she heard a commotion, then saw 30 people panicking and screaming and kind of running toward her from the area of the food court and the Sears department store. The 24-year-old from Columbia said she immediately went to the back of the store and got down as employees pulled shut the gates.
Its just kind of nerve-wracking, she said.
Johnson said she waited for about two hours, huddled with a dozen or so other customers and Forever 21 employees as they received periodic updates over the phone from mall security. She said police seemed to be clearing the mall store-by-store, starting with those businesses near the Sears on the ground level.
Lori Aratani, Jenna Johnson and Matt Zapotosky contributed to this report.
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/mall-in-columbia-on-lockdown-amid-reports-of-shooter/2014/01/25/4b3e8fb2-85e2-11e3-b85b-b305db87fb90_story.html
