Police from Edina, St. Louis Park and Minnetonka SWAT teams executed a search warrant at a Shelard Parkway address in St. Louis Park Saturday morning. They arrested five people, three 17-year-olds and two 18-year-olds.
Bloomington chief Booker Hodges said they are confident that they have in custody a person who fired at the victim. He said there could have been more than one person discharging a weapon.
Hodges said investigators still do not know why the shooting took place, citing a lack of cooperation, including disclosing their names.
The chief declined to identify the victim, saying the Hennepin County Medical Examiner will do that.
Though Minnesota Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington offered state assistance, Hodges said he said the department would not need it at this time.
Hodges said a Bloomington officer who was on duty in the mall and near the Nordstrom store saw a group of people run out of the department store around 7:50 p.m. The officer ran in and found the 19-year-old shot multiple times. Lifesaving measures failed.
“It was the first firearms death at the Mall of America,” Hodges said.
Surveillance video showed two groups of young men, with about five to nine people involved, fighting. During the fight, one of the people involved pulled out a gun and shot the 19-year-old, said Hodges, adding that he’d spoken already to the victim’s family.
“I really feel bad for them and their loss,” he said. “This is before Christmas and now they’re having to bury one of their loved ones.” The chief said he believed it was the first fatal shooting at the mall.
A bystander’s coat was grazed by a bullet during the confrontation, Hodges added.
In August, gunfire erupted at the mall following a confrontation. No one was injured. Five people were charged in the incident. In October the mall installed a metal detector at one of its entrances. A shooting last December on New Year’s Eve left two people injured.
Hodges said the mall is evaluating its security procedures, but he expressed skepticism that metal detectors alone could stop people from bringing guns inside the mall, pointing to the Minnesota State Fair, which experienced a shooting last summer.
Collected from Minnesota Public Radio News. View original source here.
Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) is a public radio network for the state of Minnesota. With its three services, News & Information, YourClassical MPR and The Current, MPR operates a 46-station regional radio network in the upper Midwest.
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