April 16 (UPI) — Law enforcement officials have detained three people of interest after at least 12 people were injured when gunfire broke out at a mall in South Carolina on Saturday afternoon.
Chief William Holbrook with the Columbia Police Department said that multiple rounds were fired near a Gap store in the Columbiana Centre Mall around 2 p.m. prompting a response from multiple agencies including the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
“We have three people detained. What we know is that at least three people were seen with firearms inside the mall and at least one person fired a weapon. That could change,” he said, adding that the three people detained are not yet considered suspects.
“We believe that the individuals that were armed knew each other. There was some kind of conflict that occurred that resulted in gunfire. This was not a situation where we had some random person show up at a mall to discharge a firearm and injure people. ”
Holbrook said that 10 people were injured with gunshot wounds and two others were injured in the stampede after the mass shooting. Of those victims, eight were transported to local hospitals and two others self-reported.
Two of the victims are in critical but stable condition, Holbrook said. He noted that the ages of the victims with gunshot wounds ranged from 15 to 73.
Holbrook said that police were still working to evacuate the building but have “accounted for everyone that’s been injured.”
“We did an initial sweep for people that were injured and we got them with medical personnel and got them transported,” he said.
“We had the individual stores took immediate security measures and locked the stores down and we had everybody shelter in place, so we have teams now methodically going through the mall and removing folks that they find who have sheltered in place and moving them to the unification site.”
Holbrook said that those who are evacuated from the mall are being taken to a nearby Fairfield Inn to be reunited with their friends and family members.
“We’re asking that the public stay out of the area, as I’ve said it’s very active. We have a lot of roads that are closed down. We ask for continued cooperation with that,” he said.
“We still have law enforcement teams inside the mall. We’ve but the reason that we still have teams inside the mall is that they’re clearing, it’s a large mall, they’re clearing stores one at a time.”
Holbrook noted that mall security was “invaluable” in the response to the shooting.
“The management has been on-site with us as well as their security and we thank them for that, and especially the security measures that went on inside the mall itself,” he said. “You can tell that training paid off in this situation, it was very chaotic.”
The Columbiana Centre Mall is about 10 miles northwest of downtown Columbia.
Mall officials called the shooting an “isolated, senseless act of violence” in a statement.
“Our thoughts are with everyone impacted,” mall officials said. “We are grateful for the quick response and continued support of our security team and our partners in law enforcement.”
