Three hurt in Florida mall shooting
A shooting at an upscale South Florida shopping mall that began as a fight between two groups of people left three people injured Saturday afternoon and sent mall patrons fleeing and ducking for cover, police and local news reports.
Aventura Mall calls itself on its online site as a premier shopping destination in the Miami area and South Florida.
Aventura Police said two groups of people had begun fighting in the mall when shots rang out.
One individual in one group produced a gun, and an individual in the other group produced a gun and fired it, said an Aventura police spokesman, Michael Bentolila, briefing reporters on live television. He said the injuries were not life-threatening to the three who were hurt.
Live aerial televised news footage showed mall patrons running from the Aventura Mall after reports of gunfire as law enforcement vehicles converged at the scene.
Aventura Police said that all patrons and employees were being escorted out of the area, and officials restricted access to the mall until further notice.
Videos shared on social media community forums show officers who appeared to be arresting a man outside the mall. Others show shoppers running out of the stores or seeking cover.
Aventura Police tweeted that authorities had several suspects in custody who detectives were questioning. Police had no immediate report on what touched off the fight and shooting.
Oscar Alvarado, a worker at the mall, said the complex was bustling with a strong Mother's Day weekend crowd when the chaos erupted. He said it wasn't the first shooting at the mall that he’s experienced.
“This time, I do have to say I could hear the screams from so far away. I could hear the people were worried and concerned,” he said. “They were yelling `shooter, shooter.' ”
Alvarado recorded two police officers moving down the mall walkway after the shooting with their guns drawn. And he described waiting for about an hour with coworkers before they could evacuate.
“There was a lot of commotion outside, a lot of people crying and stressed," he said of the scene outdoors.
Luke Lockart, 22, said he was in Armani Exchange, checking out when he heard screaming and things falling over because people were running into the store and knocking over mannequins.
“They were trying to hide anywhere they could because no one knew what was going on,” said Lockart, who works in real estate.
The staff at the store eventually locked the doors and asked people to go into a back room, he said. Police and first responders were running through a nearby hallway within minutes. “They were on top of it,” Lockart said.
He followed updates on social media, saying “it was a very uneasy feeling” as he spent more than an hour in the store before police escorted everyone out.
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