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CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — The latest on a shooting at a North Carolina shopping mall on Christmas Eve (all times local):
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6:40 p.m.
Police in Charlotte say a shooting that forced the closure of a mall on Christmas Eve was the result of a long-standing dispute among a group of people.
Chief Kerr Putney of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department says the group had a history of feuding and showed up at the Northlake Mall. An altercation broke out about 2 p.m. Thursday.
Putney says they used weapons "as a means to settle the dispute."
Putney says an off-duty officer nearby heard gunshots and confronted an armed man who pointed a gun in his direction. Putney says the officer then "fired his service weapon" at the man.
Putney says the man who was shot was given emergency aid, but medics pronounced him dead shortly afterward.
Putney also says the officer was placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation.
The officer, Thomas Ferguson, is on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation. Police say the man killed was 18-year-old Daquan Antonio Westbrook.
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4:20 p.m.
An official says people are still hiding in stores, locked inside a North Carolina mall after one person was killed in a shooting.
Police say the person was killed after an argument erupted at the crowded Northlake Mall in Charlotte on Thursday, the afternoon before Christmas.
Emergency medical services official Jeff Keith confirmed Thursday afternoon that incident was no longer considered an active shooter situation. But he says people are still locked in stores, where they were hiding to try to remain safe. He says officials are trying to get them out.
Detectives have called it an "officer-involved shooting."
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4:10 p.m.
One person was killed after an argument erupted at a crowded shopping mall in North Carolina on the afternoon before Christmas, police said Thursday.
Detectives from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department are investigating what the department called "an officer involved shooting" inside the Northlake Mall in Charlotte.
Police said in a statement that off-duty officers who were working at the mall arrived at the scene after the fight broke out. One "armed" person was shot and pronounced dead at the scene.
No officers were injured.
The police statement said that the situation was not considered "an active shooter situation," an indication that no armed suspects were on the loose.
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