COLUMBIA, MD – A fatal shooting took place in The Mall located in Columbia, Howard County on Saturday, causing pandemonium amongst shoppers. The incident happened around 6:10 p.m. when a deadly altercation took place in the mall’s food court. No other injuries were reported, and the police have no indications of a persistent active shooter threat.
Howard County Spokeswoman Sherry Llewellyn announced, “This was not something that our investigators believe was a random incident or an accident. This is something we believe was intentional.” They are yet to confirm the identity of the man killed but predict the victim was purposefully targeted.
Despite the currently perceived absence of any ongoing danger by officials, the evacuation of shoppers who sought refuge when the incident unraveled remained underway until 8.45 p.m. In the meantime, investigators were busy collecting testimonies from witnesses.
Jonathan Kim, one of the shoppers, recounted his experience running with the crowd when the chaos broke out. Meanwhile, Tara Little, another shopper, compared the sound of the gunshot to a chair falling.
The local businesses reflected on their response during this unfortunate incident, drawing from lessons learned in a previous active shooter incident at the same mall in 2014.