Mall reopens as police probe reports of weekend gunfire


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RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A busy North Carolina shopping mall reopened for business Sunday as police continued investigating reports of gunfire that sent shoppers running in fear or left them hiding inside stores a day earlier.

Police said they haven't confirmed what really happened but say there were no reports of people being wounded or of shell casings found inside the Crabtree Valley Mall.

Pandemonium erupted Saturday afternoon and after several shoppers said they heard what sounded like gunfire.

While some people reported seeing a gun, "no one has reported that we had a gun fired, so we are looking at all possibilities," Raleigh Police Chief Cassandra Deck-Brown told reporters.

Video posted on social media sites shows dozens of people running toward mall exit doors as numerous screams were heard. Outside the mall, where people gathered afterward, a police officer got on the loudspeaker of a fire truck and said there was no one shot in the mall. Witnesses described chaos after reports of shots.

Eight people ranging in age from 10 to 70 were transported to hospitals for treatment of injuries suffered as they rushed to leave the mall, the police chief said. None of those injuries appeared to be life-threatening.

The mall reopened at noon on Sunday and was to be open until 7 p.m., said a woman who answered the phone mall office but would not provide her name.

The mall said on its website that people who left personal items at the mall during the confusion on Saturday could pick them up beginning Sunday.

The shopping complex in an affluent area of Raleigh was put on lockdown while helicopters buzzed overhead and numerous law enforcement vehicles swarmed the shopping area. Footage from a news helicopter showed shoppers filing out of the mall with their hands over their heads as police took control of the scene.

Raleigh police said they initially responded at 2:30 p.m. to reports that shots had been fired.

John Riggleman and Kristin Warring said in an interview that they were heading to a video game store when they heard shots coming from the food court. They quickly ran into the store with dozens of others. Police told them they could leave the store at about 3 p.m.

Riggleman said they were inside the video game store for about a half-hour. When they finally were allowed to leave, they passed about 10 officers or SWAT team members moving the other way with guns drawn.

"They had guns up, kind of covering us as we were running out. And then there were more back toward the exit kind of telling people where to go," Riggleman said.

Another person said he saw an argument between two men in the food court that led to about four shots being fired. Antonio Richardson told The Associated Press that he saw two men who appeared to be in their early 20s arguing and that one of them began shooting.

In the late afternoon heat, scores of people gathered outside the mall, waiting for news of what happened, police permission to retrieve their cars, or to collect other belongings left behind during their rush for the doors.

Zoe Hanks, 12, was at a hairdresser inside the mall, having the hair around her shoulders lightened, when word of an emergency came. She left with chemicals still in her hair and a towel around her neck. She said she knew it was time to go when "all the people were running."

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Associated Press writer Allen G. Breed contributed to this report.

Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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