The 19-year-old man killed in an altercation at the Mall of America, Minnesota, on friday night, according to Bloomington police
A 19-year-old man was killed Friday in a shooting during an altercation at the Mall of America in Minnesota, the nation’s largest shopping and entertainment center, police said.
A Bloomington police officer who was at the mall heard the gunshots. The officer tried life-saving measures but was unable to save the victim.
The 30-year-old mall, about 10 miles south of downtown Minneapolis, has more than 500 stores, more than 50 dining options, dozens of attractions and two hotels, according to the owners.
“We have an incident where if someone decides that they want to pull out a gun and shoot somebody with complete lack of disrespect for human life, I still don’t know what we can do to stop that,” Hodges said.
Jovonta Patton, a Billboard gospel singer, was filming an Instagram reel at Gucci inside of Nordstrom at the Mall of America, when gunshots went off in the background.
The team was staying at a hotel near where they are playing the Vikings on Saturday. Giants spokesperson Pat Hanlon told the Associated Press on Friday that the players who were at the mall during the shooting had made it back to the hotel, and that everyone had been accounted for.
Robert Gonzalez was at the mall Wednesday and during the 2019 shooting, he told CNN. He saw people “running to the exit” Wednesday, he said, and video he took inside the mall shows several storefronts had their security gates down. Outside, a second video shows police gathered at the entrance.
A 19-year-old male was fatally shot at the Mall of America on the day before Christmas and five people were taken into custody, police said Saturday.
At an evening news conference, Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges announced the arrests in connection with the Friday night shooting in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington and said all would face murder charges, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.
Hodges said the arrested suspects were two men, 18, and three 17-year-old male juveniles, according to the Star Tribune, and they were taken into custody in the morning at a home in nearby St. Louis Park by SWAT team officers from three jurisdictions.
The chief said that one 18-year-old is suspected of being the shooter and another may have fired a weapon. A sixth suspect was still being sought.
Shooting at a mall: A man killed in a bar and two others wounded in the Cielo Vista Mall, El Paso, Texas
“In Bloomington, if you come here and murder people at our mall, you get one of these at at Christmas,” the newspaper quoted Hodges as saying while holding up an orange prison suit.
The governor of Minnesota said in a message that the shooting at the mall was absolutely unacceptable. We are working with officials to provide the necessary support and resources.
There appeared to be some type of altercation between two groups that escalated into a fistfight, and someone pulled out a gun and shot the victim multiple times, according to police. The entire incident lasted about 30 seconds.
The mall was placed on lockdown in August after a reported shooting sent some shoppers running for cover, and two people were wounded last New Year’s Eve during an apparent altercation.
Since it opened in 1992, the Mall of America has been a tourist destination and community gathering spot. It bans guns on the premises, but shoppers have generally not been required to pass through metal detectors. The mall said in October it was testing a “weapons detection system” at one of its entrances.
A single person was killed and three others injured in a shooting at a mall in El Paso, Texas, sending patrons running or barricaded in a community that was still trying to come to grips with a mass shooting three years ago, police said.
Two people, both male, were taken into custody after the gunfire inside the Cielo Vista Mall, interim El Paso Police Chief Peter Pacillas said Wednesday night. Police have not commented on possible motives.
A group of people running away from the sound of gunshots were captured on a camera in a bar at the mall.
All four people shot were male, Pacillas said. Two of the injured were brought to the University Medical Center of El Paso in critical condition, the hospital told CNN. The third injured person was also hospitalized, Gomez said, but their condition is unknown.
The mall sits next to a Walmart where a shooting in 2019 killed 23 and left nearly two dozen more injured. Last week, the 24-year-old gunman pleaded guilty to 90 federal charges as part of a plea deal.
The Wednesday shooting is yet another example of gunfire shattering the sense of security many Americans once felt in public spaces, like shopping centers, grocery stores and schools.
In 2022, more than 600 mass shootings occurred in the U.S. in which at least four people were killed or wounded, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
Marie Hall was working at a salad shop at the food court when she heard gunshots. She ran to the back of the restaurant and hid in a walk-in fridge with another employee and two customers, she said.
“Nothing prepares you for that,” she told the affiliate. In the beginning, I did not feel safe at work because of the shooting in 2019. It’s going to be a challenge to go in to work.
The 2019 Dallas Black Hole Shooting at the Cielo Vista Mall: El Paso Police, Border Patrol, and the FBI – Loss of a Single Player
The El Paso police, Texas Department of Public Safety, US Border Patrol, and other law enforcement agencies worked into the night to clear the scene and begin a preliminary investigation.
Albert Hernandez, whose sister Maribel and brother-in-law Leo Campos were killed in the 2019 shooting, told KFOX he feels political leaders are “not accepting the full scope of the situation” of gun violence and are “numb to what’s going on.”
“We felt the same feelings come back to us as the day of the Walmart shooting. Everything comes back and we’re just wondering, now what? How many people are going to get hurt? “Yes, I said that.”
The Cielo Vista Mall was considered a crime scene and would remain that way until authorities finished their investigation, according to the interim police chief.
The shooting happened in a busy shopping area across the parking lot from Walmart, where 23 people were killed in a racist attack targeting Hispanics in 2019. In El Paso, there is a US border with Mexico and a largely Latino population.
“Today’s shooting at the Cielo Vista Mall has brought back traumatic memories for many of us. “You are not alone, please know that,” said Veronica Escobar, the Democratic member of congress from El Paso.
The FBI has set up a website for the public to share any photos or video they have from the shooting in El Paso.
Greg Abbott offered assistance from the Texas Department of Public and Safety and the Texas Division of Emergency Management after he spoke to the mayor of El Paso.