MINNEAPOLIS — There was a shooting inside the Mall of America on Friday night, a spokesman for the Bloomington Police Department has confirmed.
The mall was put on lockdown, the spokesman said just after 8 p.m. It was lifted about an hour later, at which point the Mall closed for the night and asked remaining customers to head home.
Police did not immediately confirm the location of the shooting, but Bloomington Mayor Tim Busse said it was inside the Nordstrom department store, one of the mall's original tenants and anchor stores.
Police did not immediately say if the shooting was fatal, how many people were involved or their conditions, or whether any arrests have been made. It's not a first for gunplay inside the state's biggest shopping mall, which last saw a shooting incident in August.
Dan Kauppi, who was shopping at the mall at the time, said he didn't see much.
"An alarm went off in the mall, which was unusual, and an announcement said a lockdown was happening and to go into a store and head to the back," he said. "The store I am in closed their front gates. After a few moments they said we should head to the stock room."
Suri Caceres, a store manager at Pink, a clothing store on the first level, said she, another manager and customers locked the door and went to the back of the store after getting a phone call from the mall's security. She said they could see police in the mall corridor through the store's windows.
"I'm kind of shocked and scared," Caceres said.
A store clerk at Club Monaco, a clothing store near Nordstrom, who declined to identify herself, said that at about 8 p.m. police came to the store and said to shut the door and "stay down."
The clerk said she locked the door but some customers who were inside opened it and left. Only she and a co-worker were still in the store. She said she hadn't seen any victims but could see "police running around." She said she did not see any officers with their guns drawn.
"I'm a little freaked out," she said.
At Croc's, a shoe store on the first level, an alarm went off that signaled that the mall was on a lockdown, a store clerk said.
The clerks locked the door with customers inside. At 8:30 p.m., she said clerks and customers remained in the back of the store. She said police had not give any reason for the lockdown.
The spokesman said more details would be coming from the Police Department. They asked people to stay away from the area.
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(Star Tribune staff writer Abby Simons contributed to this story.)
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