Tag Archives: Mall

Multiple deaths at shooting rampage in German shopping mall: police

Police meet at scene of shooting rampage in Munich

By Joern Poltz

MUNICH (Reuters) – Gunmen went on a shooting rampage in a shopping mall in the southern German city of Munich on Friday, killing and wounding many people, police said.

Authorities were evacuating people from the Olympia mall but many others were hiding inside.

The Bavarian Interior Ministry said three people were dead, NTV television reported. A Munich police spokeswoman said multiple people were killed or wounded.

“We believe we are dealing with a shooting rampage,” the spokeswoman said.

More than one gunman was believed to be involved and no one had been arrested, she said.

“We believe there was more than one perpetrator. The first reports came at 6 p.m., the shooting apparently began at a McDonald’s in the shopping center. There are still people in the shopping center. We are trying to get the people out and take care of them.”

Police special forces had arrived at the scene, NTV said.

It was not immediately clear who carried out the attack, which took place a week after an axe-wielding teenager went on a rampage on a German train. Islamic State claimed responsibility for that attack.

Staff in the mall were still in hiding, an employee told Reuters by telephone.

“Many shots were fired, I can’t say how many but it’s been a lot,” the employee, who declined to be identified, said from the mall in Munich.

“All the people from outside came streaming into the store and I only saw one person on the ground who was so severely injured that he definitely didn’t survive,”

“We have no further information, we’re just staying in the back in the storage rooms. No police have approached us yet.”

Munich transport authorities said they had halted several bus, train and tram lines.

The shopping center is next to the Munich Olympic stadium, where the Palestinian militant group Black September took 11 Israeli athletes hostage and eventually killed them during the 1972 Olympic Games.

Friday’s attack took place a week after a 17-year-old asylum-seeker wounded passengers on a German train in an axe rampage. Bavarian police shot dead the teenager after he wounded four people from Hong Kong on the train and injured a local resident while fleeing.

German Justice Minister Heiko Maas told Bild newspaper’s Friday edition before the mall attack that there was “no reason to panic but it’s clear that Germany remains a possible target”.

The incidents in Germany follow an attack in Nice, France, on Bastille Day in which a Tunisian drove a truck into crowds, killing 84. Islamic State also claimed responsibility for that attack.

There was, however, no immediate word that the attack was politically motivated.

Friday is also the five-year anniversary of the massacre by Anders Behring Breivik in Norway. Breivik is a hero for far-right extremists in Europe and America.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal, Editing by Robin Pomeroy and Angus MacSwan)

Up to 2,000 People Involved in ‘Riot’ at Kentucky Shopping Mall

Anywhere between 1,000 and 2,000 people — a large percentage of them middle-school- and high-school-aged kids — were involved in multiple altercations during a chaotic scene at a Kentucky shopping mall on Saturday evening, according to multiple published reports.

The disturbances happened at Mall St. Matthews in St. Matthews, Kentucky, a Louisville suburb.

Police told the Louisville Courier-Journal that most of the children were unsupervised. Law enforcement was still working to determine what exactly touched off the altercations, which began in the shopping center and later spilled out into nearby parking lots and businesses.

Speaking to NBC News, St. Matthews Police Spokesman Dennis McDonald described the situation as “a riot.” He said “a series of brawls” broke out across “the entire mall,” adding that he had not seen anything like the events of the evening in his 33 years as a police officer.

The mall has 130 stores and more than 23 acres of leasable space, according to its website.

The Courier-Journal reported that police initially received a single call for assistance to break up disorderly conduct, but got “dozens of others” as more people joined in and the altercations became more violent. McDonald told the newspaper the conflicts appeared to fuel each other, and “kind of a mob mentality” developed. Officers from at least four agencies responded to the situation.

Police were still trying to determine if the fights were gang-related or pre-planned, the Courier-Journal reported. But McDonald told the newspaper that parents and guardians of many kids appeared to be using the mall as a “babysitter,” noting that police believe most of Saturday’s troublemakers took public transportation to the mall or were dropped off there.

McDonald told the Courier-Journal that the mall should consider adopting a policy that would bar children below a certain age from visiting the mall without a parent accompanying them. He told the newspaper that could ultimately help prevent other disturbances from occurring there.

Local television station WLKY reported there weren’t any reports of injuries or arrests stemming from the confrontations. However, the mall decided to close more than an hour early, and one business manager told the station he lost more than $1,000 because of shutting his doors.

The mall was open Sunday, WLKY reported, though police stepped up their security presence there.

Gunman Opens Fire At New Jersey Mall

A gunman opened fire at a New Jersey mall Monday night before hiding in a back room and killing himself.

Richard Shoop, 20, was found near 3:30 a.m. in a distant part of the Westfield Garden State Plaza mall.

Shoop had fired at least six shots without hitting anyone in the mall causing the entire building to go into lockdown for hours. Thousands of shoppers were trapped inside businesses while police searched store to store for the shooter who reportedly was wearing black body armor.

Police suspected this was a case of what they call “suicide by cop” where someone waves a gun around in an attempt to get police to kill them. The police cited the fact Shoop fired at random and at security cameras rather than people.

Shoop had a note on his claiming that “the end was near.”