Police said one person was shot at Tacoma Mall just after 7 p.m. Friday. There are no suspects in custody.
TACOMA, Wash. — One person was shot in the food court of the Tacoma Mall just after 7 p.m. Friday night, according to the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department.
The male who was shot was taken to the hospital. His condition has not been released.
The sheriff’s department said it was not an active shooter situation. Tacoma Police Officer Gary Wurges said a fight in the Tacoma Mall food court escalated into gunfire.
There are no suspects in custody.
Everyone inside the mall was locked down but has since been escorted out. The public is advised to stay away. It’s unknown if Tacoma Mall will reopen Saturday.
TPD said, “All unaccompanied juveniles are being brought to the Tacoma Mall Transit Center, 2100 blk of S 48th St., to be picked up. The mall is closed.”
More than 60 Pierce County deputies responded to the scene, along with units from Tacoma, Lakewood, Ruston, Puyallup, and Sumner police departments, transit police and the Washington State Patrol.
The shooting happened on Black Friday, which usually draws extra shoppers into stores. It’s unclear how many people were inside the mall when the shooting occurred.
“We were a full house, had about a 20-minute wait and when we heard the shots, everybody crouched down and started crawling out the exit,” said Danielle Tanaka, an employee at Kizuki Ramen in the Tacoma Mall.
“I was in the back just cooking, making orders and once I heard the first two shots go off, I ran to grab everybody. I started yelling, ‘Get down, get down’ and I actually had to pull people to the ground because they were still standing up walking around,” said Carlo Medina, an employee at the same restaurant. “People were definitely shocked, they were traumatized, there were people crying in the hallway.”
Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards and Deputy Mayor Keith Blocker shared the following statement Friday night:
“We want to acknowledge the magnitude of this event that occurred this evening and thank our first responders for swiftly responding to the scene. We are grateful to our local law enforcement partners who responded to the call with us today. While there are not a lot of details available at this time, we believe this to be an isolated event and the Tacoma Police Department is hard at work, conducting a full investigation. Because the impacts of gun violence ripple out community wide, we continue to place high priority on public safety. As we learn more, we stand with everyone impacted by this event – we are stronger together.”
The day before Thanksgiving, two people were injured in a shooting outside Westfield Southcenter Mall around 6:30 p.m., according to the Tukwila Police Department.