COLUMBIA, SC — A holiday weekend was punctuated by violence when 10 people were shot Saturday at a busy South Carolina shopping center and two others were injured in a subsequent stampede amid gunfire, authorities said.
Two of the injured are in critical condition, Columbia Police Chief William H. Holbrook said at a news conference.
Police received a call at 2:03 p.m. about a shooting near the Gap store at the Columbiana Center mall. It was unclear what led to the shooting, but three people were detained although they had not been charged, Chief Holbrook said. At least one of them had fired a weapon, he said.
“We don’t believe this was random,” he said. “We believe that the armed individuals knew each other and that a conflict took place that resulted in gunfire.”
The ages of the injured ranged from 15 to 73 years. Prisma Health hospitals treated nine patients, who were subsequently discharged, and admitted two, Tammie Epps, a spokeswoman for Prisma, said in an email. The condition of the 12th patient was not immediately known.
The shooting, during a busy weekend the day before Easter, left shoppers seeking safety in the mall.
Blair Mcilravy and Kailana Brown, both 11, were shopping Saturday at Palmetto Moon, a clothing store, with plans to attend the University of South Carolina spring soccer game afterward.
Then a series of shots rang out. Kailana’s mother quickly escorted them to a pantry to hide.
“We heard people screaming and running and gunshots,” Blair said.
They had to call Blair’s mother, Keri Mcilravy, from a landline because Blair could only get one text message—”Mom”—before her cell phone stopped working. When Mrs. Mcilravy arrived at the mall, the girls had been escorted outside by law enforcement officers.
“I went into fight mode,” Ms. Mcilravy said when she learned that a shooting had captured her daughter. “We broke every traffic law to get there.”
Police, going store after store in a systematic search of the mall, instructed workers to take shelter on the spot and wait for law enforcement officers to arrive. “DO NOT leave a store until the proper authorities have asked you to do so”, said the police on Twitter†
In parking lots near the mall, officers — some wearing vests marked “US Marshal” or jackets marked “FBI” — huddled under tents and next to police cars, trying to figure out why a Saturday afternoon shopping was pierced by gunshots.
Brookfield Properties, owner of the Columbiana Center, describes the mall as “ideally located to serve the affluent and fast-growing suburbs of northern and northwestern Columbia, the capital of South Carolina and home to the University of South Carolina.”
In a statement on TwitterThe mall’s management said: “Today’s isolated, senseless act of violence is extremely disturbing and our thoughts are with everyone involved. We are grateful for the prompt response and continued support from our security team and law enforcement partners.”
A nearby hotel used as a place to reunite those who fled the mall and their relatives after the shooting said a woman who described the panic in people’s faces as they waited for loved ones. But a few hours later, it was mostly law enforcement officers who lingered there.
