1 injured in Black Friday shooting at Washington state mall
Gunshots rang out on Black Friday inside a packed Washington state mall, injuring one person as hundreds of other shoppers hid inside stores
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Your support makes all the difference.Inside a packed Washington state mall gunshots rang out on Black Friday, injuring one person as hundreds of other shoppers hid inside stores.
Authorities said the shooting in Tacoma south of Seattle was reported just after 7 p.m. on Friday near the mall’s food court. The person shot was taken to a hospital with serious injuries, Tacoma police said. It's unclear what condition the injured person was in as of Saturday.
As of Saturday morning, there have been no reported arrests.
KOMO reports that officers working in the mall saw a small group get into a dispute that escalated with gunfire. The suspects fled the mall.
After the shots rang out at Tacoma Mall, which immediately went into lockdown, shoppers sheltered in place or hid inside stores.
“We were about to get up and I hear about six shots or something,” Daisey Dockter, who was finishing a meal with her aunt and uncle when gunfire broke out, told KOMO. “We all just start running toward the door. It’s a huge mob of people. Everyone’s kind of pushing.”
At least two uniformed officers were at a table in the food court when the shooting began and both rushed to respond.
In addition, more than 60 law enforcement officers from Tacoma, Pierce County Lakewood Puyallup and the Washington State Patrol responded.
Pierce County Sheriff’s Sgt. Darren Moss said police went in to conduct a “coordinated search” of the mall.
Fredrick Hoskins was shopping with his daughter when he heard gunfire.
“There was a boom, boom, boom … boom, boom, boom. Maybe like six shots,” Hoskins, who previously served in the military, told The News Tribune. “It sounded like a revolver, and it sounded like one shooter.”
The Tacoma Mall is the city’s largest shopping mall, with more than 100 stores.