Photo: Jeffrey Greenberg/UIG/Getty
Police say a Thanksgiving night fight at an Alabama shopping center left an 18-year-old man and a 12-year-old girl injured and the gunman dead, PEOPLE confirms.
“Yesterday at 9:52 p.m., two males engaged in a physical altercation on the second floor concourse area of the Riverchase Galleria, near the entrance to Footaction,” the Hoover Police Department wrote in aFacebook statementreleased on Friday morning. “During the fight, one of the males produced a handgun and shot the other male twice in the torso.”
After hearing gunfire, two Hoover police officers who were working security at the mall approached the area and one of them shot the gunman, a 21-year-old man, after seeing him “brandishing a pistol,” according to the statement.
The gunman was pronounced dead on the scene.
During a late-night news conference held at the mall on Thursday, both the Hoover Police Chief Nick Derzis and Mayor Frank Borcato praised the police officers for their quick response.
“From the time that shooting took place, they engaged and it was safe within seconds that it happened,” Derzis said, according tolocal station WVTM. “You don’t see that too often. So very, very proud of that.”
RELATED VIDEO: He Survived the Las Vegas Massacre — Then a Gunman Killed Him in Calif. Mass Shooting: ‘No. More. Guns,’ Says Mom
Although the shopping center was scheduled to be open until midnight, so that customers could start their Black Friday shopping early, the mall closed following the shooting.
“We are working closely with the Hoover Police Department and are grateful for their swift action to contain the situation,” the statement continued. “While there is no current danger to our community, the shopping center will remain closed until further notice.”
(Neither Riverchase nor Hoover police immediately responded to PEOPLE’s messages.)
The mall reopened at 6 a.m. on Friday, according to WBRC.
After gunshots first broke out, witnesses told NBC News that hundreds of shoppers fled the area.
Multiple witnesses claimed to have heard up to 10 shots, NBC News reported.
source: people.com
