SALT LAKE CITY – A gunman entered a shopping mall and began randomly opening fire on customers Monday night, killing five people and injuring many others before he was killed, police said.
“We have six fatalities and multiple victims at hospitals,” police detective Robin Snyder said. “They were found throughout the mall. I don’t know male or female or ages.”
“The suspect has been killed,” she said.
The two-story, enclosed Trolley Square mall, just southeast of downtown, is a refurbished old trolley barn, with a series of winding hallways and about 80 stores.
At least four people were hospitalized, three in critical condition and one in serious condition, hospital spokesmen said.
Many employees and shoppers – “a lot of scared people” – were still inside the mall about three hours after the shootings, hunkered down and waiting for a police escort, Snyder said.
Authorities said the gunman entered the mall about 6:45 p.m. local time, Snyder said.
Antiques store owner Barrett Dodds, 29, said he saw a man in a trench coat exchanging gunfire with a police officer outside a card store. The gunman was backed into a children’s clothing store, he said.
“I saw the cops go in the store. I saw the shooter go down,” said Dodds, who watched from the second floor.
Barb McKeown, 60, of Washington, D.C., was in another antiques shop when two frantic women ran in and reported gunshots.
“Then we heard shot after shot after shot – loud, loud, loud,” said McKeown, saying she heard about 20.
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