Police: No injuries after shots fired at Mall of America

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — The Mall of America was placed on lockdown late Thursday afternoon after shots were fired at the suburban Minneapolis shopping center, police confirmed. No victim was found, and police are searching for a suspect.

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The mall, located in Bloomington -- the largest shopping center in North America -- tweeted on its official Twitter account that there was a “confirmed isolated incident in a tenant space.”

Update 9:30 p.m. EDT Aug. 4: At a news conference Thursday evening, the Bloomington Police Department said the shooting was “an isolated incident” and that there was no threat to the public.

Bloomington police Chief Booker Hodges said the shooting occurred after two groups of men began fighting near a cash register at a Nike store, KSTP-TV reported. One of the men took out a weapon and began firing, police said.

There were no injuries and no one is in custody, Hodges said.

“Please turn yourself in,” Hodges said in a message directed toward the suspects. “But should you choose not to, our officers, our partners, our detectives will not stop until we lock you up.”

Original report: The Bloomington Police Department confirmed at 5:40 p.m. CDT that shots were fired inside the mall and that a suspect fled on foot, KARE-TV reported. The department initially tweeted that “numerous officers” were at the scene.

Police said the scene has been secured, according to the television station. Police added that the mall would close after the lockdown was lifted.

Ava Malloy, an employee at Air Traffic Toys in the mall, told KARE-TV by telephone that “I turned off the lights and everyone’s huddled behind something.”

“We were working with customers and then all of a sudden there were people running in the store,” Macy’s employee Brenda Wachello told the television station via telephone during the lockdown. “And then people were saying, ‘There’s a shooter.”

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