At least one shopper ended up dead during the shooting on Friday, just two days before Christmas, which has sent the frightened customers the Mall of America racing into a lockdown for the third time in less than a year, mall officials and police in suburban Minneapolis said Friday evening.
The person has reportedly been shot inside the nation’s largest shopping center in Bloomington, Minnesota, just before the holiday weekend with shoppers being ordered to seek shelter inside as multiple police descended on the mall building.
Bloomington police announced in a tweet shortly after 8 pm local time that its forces and EMS are on the scene of the reported shooting at the Mall of America, confirming that MOA is on lockdown, and warning people to stay out of the area.
They noted that police were working to process the area along with the MOA’s security and the Hennepin County Crime Lab with videos from the scene showing at least half a dozen police, EMS, and fire department vehicles near the building’s entrance.
Visitors in the mall were urged in a separate tweet to remain in the closest secure location until the lockdown has been lifted, which happened around an hour later, when the venue announced the end of the lockdown, informing that visitors should exit the property.
Although the number of victims has yet to be officially confirmed, Fox Minneapolis reported that at least one person was shot and killed, whereas authorities only said that the shooting scene has been secured.
According to police, Bloomington Police initially responded to the site at Nordstrom, where two groups of men appeared to be fighting.
The shooting and the lockdown marked the third such incident over the past year after a shooting in August triggered panic and a brief lockdown, although it caused no injuries, while during the last New Year’s Eve, two people were injured in a shooting at the largest US mall.
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