A 19-year-old was killed during a shooting at the Mall of America on Friday (December 23) night. The country’s largest shopping mall was sent into a lockdown after bullets started to fly near the mall’s Nordstrom location, The Associated Press reports.
The entire incident, which lasted about 30 seconds shortly before 8 p.m., appeared to have stemmed from an altercation between two groups of an estimated five to nine people. Someone pulled out a gun and shot the male victim several times. Another bystander’s jacket was grazed by a bullet. “We don’t know why it happened or what happened,” Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges said. The mall was locked down for about an hour.
Inside the mall were players and personnel for the New York Giants who are in town ahead of their Christmas Eve matchup against the Minnesota Vikings, Sports Illustrated reports. They have all been accounted for and have been marked safe from the shooting. Players inside the mall were escorted out by team security and local police, while other players were advised to shelter in place.
Radio play-by-play voice Bob Papa was among one of the members traveling. “Scary here,” he tweeted. “Safely out of mall and back at hotel. Prayers to victim.”
Hodges reportedly told the gunman and the others involved to turn themselves in. “We are going to catch you, we are going to lock you up and you are going to get an orange jumpsuit. It’s just a matter of when it’s going to happen,” he said.
Although the man who was killed has not yet been publicly ID’ed, Hodges said he and Bloomington Mayor Tim Busse spoke to his relatives. “The family here, I really feel bad for them. Their last week before Christmas and now they’re having to bury one of their loved ones,” he said.
The mall reopened Saturday, but Nordstrom won’t.
