One person was killed and another was left injured after a shooting at a shopping mall in central Florida, and the suspect remains on the run.
The Ocala Police Department confirmed that one man was shot in the head and pronounced dead on the scene.
A woman, who sustained a gunshot wound to the leg, has been transported to a local hospital and is expected to survive.
The shooter is believed to be a black male wearing a dark hoodie, black pants and a mask partially covering his face, according to Ocala Police Chief Mike Balken.
Authorities responded to calls reporting an ‘active shooter’ at the Paddock Mall in Ocala, located 80 miles northwest of Orlando, at around 3.40 pm on Saturday.
‘Officers immediately made entry into the mall and ultimately discovered this was not an active shooter situation,’ Balken said.
One person was killed and another was left injured after a shooting at a shopping mall in central Florida , and the suspect remains on the run on Saturday afternoon
The Ocala Police Department confirmed that one man was shot in the head and pronounced dead on the scene
Authorities responded to calls reporting an ‘active shooter’ at the Paddock Mall in Ocala, located 80 miles northwest of Orlando, at around 3.40 pm on Saturday
Officers determined a shooting had occurred and the suspect had fled the scene.
‘One adult male was found deceased in a common area, and one woman was taken to the hospital and is being treated for non-life-threatening injuries,’ authorities said.
‘The mall will be locked down for at least the next 12 hours,’ Balken said.
‘We believe the shooter fled the area and is at large. We also believe this shooting may have been targeted,’ authorities later wrote.
‘Right now we are conducting a secondary sweep of the mall and are investigating this shooting,’ they added.
In videos and photos circulating on social media, holiday shoppers can be seen shouting and streaming out of the mall.
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Multiple victims were transported on stretchers from the mall area by emergency teams.
A helicopter can be seen flying above the mall area, actively searching for the shooter.
Police recovered a gun believed to have been used by the shooter but did not specify the firearm type.
Officers from the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, county and city fire rescue teams, and the Florida Highway Patrol were on-site
Multiple victims were transported on stretchers from the mall area by emergency teams
Syriah Williams, 18, was shopping at Bath & Body Works with her mother when she heard several shots ring out.
‘The employees opened the back storage area and told everyone to run,’ Williams told ABC News.
She quickly took cover behind the store counters when the ‘chaos erupted’.
Calvin and Diana Amos, who were shopping in the J.C. Penney store, told the Ocala Star Banner that they evacuated the store quickly once they figured out what was going on.
The family said they didn’t hear any shots but were ‘scared’ and ‘apprehensive’.
Megan Garcia, who was at Kay Jewelers inside the mall, said, ‘I dropped everything and ran,’ even though she had already paid for the items.
Officers from the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, county and city fire rescue teams, and the Florida Highway Patrol were on-site.
‘It’s the worst. The worst thing we can imagine right now at this time of the year. Somebody has suffered a loss in their family,’ Balken said at the news conference.
‘It’s a horrible time of year for this to happen ever, but it is especially sad during the holidays.’
