People flee the scene of a reported mall shooting in Raleigh, North Carolina. Twitter
Crabtree Valley Mall was locked down Saturday after multiple reports that gunfire rang out but police did not find anyone with gunshot wounds and aren’t even sure there was a shooting at the North Carolina mall.
An eyewitness says any shooting at the Raleigh shopping center might have stemmed from an argument, not a mass shooter, but panic ensued inside the mall as people hid in stores and fled in terror amidst the chaos. EMS officials said in an early evening news conference that eight people were transported to the hospital with non life-threatening injuries believed to have occurred in the stampede for the door.
Mostly, the injuries involved falls or people being pushed in the mass rush out of the mall after people said gunshot sounds, an EMS official said in the news conference. The mall reopened Sunday, and people were allowed to retrieve their abandoned belongings.
It was unclear several hours after the reports of a mall shooting what happened to any gunman or whether there ever was one. Raleigh Police said in the press conference that no one was hit by a gunshot, and no one was in custody.
Police were still trying to evaluate whether there was actually gunfire or people heard something else, such as fireworks. Police said they did not find shell casings.
“We have not determined that there was a shooter,” Raleigh Police Chief Cassandra Deck-Brown said in the news conference.
Many eyewitnesses described fleeing in panic or hiding in stores after hearing gunfire break out in the mall’s food court, with some posting videos or tweeting about the incident on social media. Some people also suffered from heat exhaustion, officials said.
K97.5 is reporting that the shooting might have stemmed from two men in their 20s arguing in the mall when one pulled a gun out and was not a mass shooter. At the news conference, police would not confirm or deny the argument report.
Antonio Richardson told WRAL “he saw two men who appeared to be in their early 20s arguing in the food court. He says he saw one of them pull out a gun and begin shooting. As he was running away, he says he heard as many as four shots in all.”
WRAL said that, as of 3:20 p.m., “police said no one was being allowed in or out of the mall. No suspects have been arrested, and police said they did not have reports of any injuries.” An hour later, police said they still had no suspect but also “had not found anyone inside the mall suffering from gunshot wounds,” according to WRAL and other news accounts.
One woman had tweeted earlier in the afternoon that she was inside the mall and there was a shooter there:
So this is happening. Shots fired in Crabtree Mall. Pauline barricaded in Sears, I’m outside.
Another eyewitness said a person began shooting in the food court, leading people to stampede for the doors. A WNCN reporter said that more than 100 people were evacuated to a nearby Marriot. The mall was under a lockdown, said The Charlotte Observer.
I have friends at #CrabtreeMall who were in the food court when a shooter came in and started shooting & people getting trampled
A woman described on Twitter what happened when she and other strangers hid: “We bonded with strangers in a closet in Crabtree mall. We prayed. We strategized. We gathered weapons. We hugged.” Crabtree Valley Mall has nearly 200 stores and dozens of restaurants.
Crabtree Mall, Raleigh NC, has been on lockdown a couple of hours after shots reported fired, big panic followed. No one seems wounded.
A woman said the incidenthappened right as she arrived for work:
I was walking in for my shift at Crabtree valley mall today where this shooting took place when I got there. Pray for everyone there now.
There were unconfirmed scanner reports that people were injured while fleeing; within an hour of the first reports of the shooting, many people were seen leaving the mall.
The News Observer interviewed an eyewitness, Kristen Warring, 26, of Raleigh, who said she was shopping with her boyfriend at the GameStop store “when they heard shots about 2:30.”
The News Observer quoted Warring as saying: “We heard at least 10 shots, maybe more. It was loud. We were close. We got as low as we could, behind a barricade. Saw a lot of people running and pushing to get out. Texted 911 at that point to let them know there were 30-40 people – about half were children. … They said to keep… low, said police were on the scene.”
UPDATE on #Crabtree Mall Shooting: From police scanner, multiple victims might have been injured by falling from second story balcony inside
People also shared this video on social media purporting to show the sound of an “explosion” in the mall:
WRAL said that “Raleigh police were responding to the scene following the incident. No other information has been released.” Reports on Twitter said that people at the mall were “safely locked in stores.” WNCN said workers and shoppers were evacuated. Police were going to stores to evacuate people who were hiding.
Police are clearing the area now, shoppers still safely locked in to the stores. #crabtreemall
A look at Crabtree Valley Mall … Heavy police presence. Part of mall evacuated. Working to learn more.@WNCN
ABC 11 spoke to an eyewitness who was in the food court when the incident happened. She told the TV station “they heard ‘something pop’ and then ‘pandemonium broke out.’ She said people were running over tables and chairs to get out of the mall. Multiple eyewitnesses said there was a shooting.” However, ABC 11 also said that police had not yet provided any details about what was happening or the extent of it.
One man posted on Twitter that there had been an explosion and were multiple shooters but other reports did not say those things:
Other people who were at the mall posted videos on social media:
And:
And:
.@Ngozi_ABC11 on #Periscope: Eyewitness account at Crabtree mall t.co/gFx7sdEEr2
Local news reporters interviewed people at the scene:
As was seen in other active shooter situations, the advent of social media sometimes means that news travels faster on Twitter than official confirmation.
Crabtree mall photo from the mall Twitter page.
Details were scant about what was going on Aug. 13 in the afternoon – including any injuries – however the reports that broke on Twitter came from multiple eyewitnesses about an active shooter and people fleeing the mall in terror.
Local reporters said there was a possible hostage situation.
We’re receiving word of people running out of the Crabtree Valley Mall and reports of a hostage situation. Be safe. #TWCnews
The report about a possible active shooter comes after mass shooting attacks in America and in Europe; for example, a shooter in Munich, Germany recently opened fire at a mall there in a shooting disseminated in part via videos on social media. However, it’s not yet known whether anyone was injured in the Raleigh mall shooting or what the motive for the attack might be.
In the Raleigh situation, photos showed police blocking off the roads around the mall.
Large police presence at Crabtree Valley Mall as roads are closed t.co/Ij4PQb5jE0
Stay turned to this story for more information. It will be updated as news comes in.