Shopping mall shooting on Christmas Eve leaves one dead after fight | US News
A shooting that broke out at a shopping mall killed one person and injured three others on Christmas Eve.
Cops responded to a report of shots fired at the Citadel Mall shortly after 4.30pm on Sunday, said the Colorado Springs Police Department on X (formerly Twitter).
‘Officers responded and determined that a fight had broken out between two groups of people,’ wrote the police department.
A man was found dead inside the mall with a gunshot wound.
Two other men were found with at least one gunshot wound each and were rushed to nearby hospitals in serious condition, said the police department. A woman was also transported to a hospital with minor injuries.
‘There is no known threat to the community at this time,’ wrote the police department around 10.30pm. ‘The mall has been cleared and closed.’
A Christmas shopper who was looking for shoes for her son at a Vans store said she saw people screaming and running as an employee shouted that ‘something’s going on’ and that people needed to ‘get in the back’.
‘I thought maybe there was some fighting or something going on,’ Heather Cunningham told 11 News.
The Vans workers ‘got us in the back of the store right away, locked everything, put the bolts on, and we were in the back, huddled back there, being quiet,’ she said.
‘It was so scary. I could still hear screaming and running outside of the Vans store.’
Cops detained several suspects, CNN reported. A shooter was not immediately identified, and police investigated whether the suspect was among the victims.
‘We do anticipate that we’ll be on scene for a good part of the evening as we investigate and try to put together the pieces of what exactly happened here,’ police spokesman Ira Cronin told the Denver Gazette on Sunday evening.
The mall in Colorado Springs is about 70 miles south of Denver.
Anyone with information on the crime is urged to contact the police department.
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