Three people are dead (including the gunman) in a Columbia Mall shooting in Maryland. Seems those strict gun laws in Maryland and ‘gun-free zones’ at the mall worked yet again didn’t it?
Three people have been killed in a shooting at Columbia Mall in Howard County, Md. Saturday, police confirmed.
The suspect was among those found dead. His body was located near a gun and ammunition, police said. Three witnesses described the gun as a shotgun, though police have not yet confirmed the weapon used.
NBC Washington:
Police said they were “confident” that there was no other shooter involved in the shooting, which was first reported just after 11 a.m.
Two other people reportedly have been transported to hospitals with injuries that were not directly connected to the shooting, though they may have been related to the chaotic scene that followed.
The scene is now secure, though police are asking shoppers who took shelter in the mall to wait for police to evacuate them. There are believed to be “many, many people still in the mall,” said Howard County Police Chief Bill McMahon at a press conference this afternoon.
No other information has been released about the other victims. McMahon would not speculate on the shooter’s motive and said he did not know how many total shots were fired, though none came from police.
Eyewitnesses described a nightmarish scene inside the popular mall, crowded with weekend shoppers. One woman said she heard what sounded like “something being dropped” and then realized the sound was gunshots.
“They just kept shooting and it didn’t stop,” she said.