Teenage boy dies in Mall of America shootout in Nordstrom: police
A teenager was killed in a shooting at the Mall of America on Friday, which put frightened shoppers at the country’s largest mall in lockdown ahead of the bank holiday weekend, police said.
Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges said the victim was a 19-year-old man. A bystander’s jacket was also grazed by a bullet during the shooting at the mall’s Nordstrom location.
There appeared to be some sort of altercation between two groups, and at one point someone pulled a gun and shot the victim multiple times, the boss said. The entire incident lasted about 30 seconds.
Hodges urged the shooter and others involved in the fight to turn themselves in to police.
“We’re going to catch you, we’re going to lock you up, and you’re going to get an orange jumpsuit,” he said. “It’s just a question of when it will happen.”
He also warned people not to help suspects avoid arrest.
“If someone helps these people — I mean as much as buy them a Happy Meal, take them home,” the chief said, clearly annoyed. “We will lock you up with them.”
The mall is expected to reopen on Saturday, but the Nordstrom store will remain closed, Hodges said.
Since opening in 1992, the mall has been a tourist destination and community gathering place. It bans guns on the premises, but shoppers generally don’t have to go through metal detectors. The mall said in October it was testing a “weapons detection system” at one of its entrances.
Hodges said the mall is constantly evaluating its security measures, including the possibility of adding metal detectors. Still, the chief added: “If we have an incident where someone decides to pull out a gun and shoot someone with absolutely no respect for human life, I still don’t know what we can do to stop it. ”
Police did not identify the man who was killed, but Hodges said he and Bloomington Mayor Tim Busse spoke with the victim’s family on Friday night.
“The family here – I really feel sorry for them,” Hodges said. “Their last week before Christmas and now they have to bury a loved one.”
CCTV at the mall showed the altercation between the two groups – estimated at five to nine people – erupted into a fistfight before one person drew a gun and opened fire, the boss said.
“We don’t know why it happened or what happened,” Hodges said.
A nearby Bloomington police officer – one of 16 stationed at the mall on Friday – heard the gunshots around 7:50 p.m. The officer attempted life-saving measures, but the victim died.
The lockdown lasted about an hour before the mall tweeted that shoppers were being sent outside. Videos posted on social media show shoppers hiding in stores and an announcement at the mall warned people to take shelter. Some videos show shoppers running for cover after hearing a loud bang.
The reported shooting comes as malls and malls across the US are seeing an influx of shoppers just days before Christmas.
Jenny Hefty of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and her 16-year-old daughter had just descended from the escalator to the second floor of the mall in front of the Nordstrom store when people started running and screaming at them. Her daughter thought she heard gunshots, but Hefty did not.
“At first we thought they were just messing around,” she told The Associated Press on Friday night. “It was like, ‘Why are all these kids walking past us?'”
Retailers began closing their doors, and her husband urged her to run as armed guards charged toward the Nordstrom, where Hefty had sampled perfume about 20 minutes earlier.
The trio raced to their mall hotel, desperately trying to reach the 18-year-old daughter, 21-year-old son and their friends on their cell phones. They had been locked in stores or taken to safer places when the mall closed.
The family, who often drive four hours to the mall, were in town for the Minnesota Vikings vs. New York Giants football game on Saturday.
“Of course we wanted to come earlier and do some Christmas shopping,” said Hefty.
The Giants stayed at a hotel next to the mall. Pat Hanlon, the team’s executive vice president of communications, said he believes some players were at the mall at the time of the shooting.
“Everyone is back at the hotel and has now given an account,” Hanlon said Friday night.
The mall went into lockdown in August after a reported shooting at the shopping complex in suburban Minneapolis prompted some shoppers to run for cover and two people were injured last New Year’s Eve during an apparent altercation.
Officials from the city of Bloomington and Nordstrom did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
— Dazio called from Los Angeles. Associated Press Sports Writer Tom Canavan contributed
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