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New Jersey shopping mall evacuated after gunfire New Jersey shopping mall evacuated after gunfire
(about 3 hours later)
A person with a gun opened fire on Monday evening in a massive New Jersey shopping mall shortly before closing time, leading police to evacuate the mall and search for the shooter, a county official said. No injuries were reported. Multiple shots were fired inside a northern New Jersey mall shortly before closing time and the search was on early Tuesday for the suspected shooter, a Bergen county official said. There was no report of injuries.
Witnesses said they heard multiple shots seconds apart inside the Garden State Plaza mall in the northern New Jersey town of Paramus, while CNN reported that the shooter had fired at security cameras. Jeanne Baratta said authorities believed the shooter may still be in the Garden State Plaza Mall. Swat teams were concentrating their search in the north-east corner of the 200,000 square metre mall in Paramus.
Televised images from outside showed a heavy police presence with dozens of cruisers converging at the mall. Baratta said a call was received saying shots were fired at the facility shortly before the mall's 9.30pm closing time on Monday night.
"Multiple gunshots were heard. We believe it is one shooter. I know there is an active shooter near the Nordstrom area," said Jeanne Baratta, chief of staff at Bergen county, where the town is located. She added that a police Swat team was on site. Paramus police chief Kenneth Ehrenberg said early on Tuesday that the suspect had been dressed in black and wore what was believed to be a motorcycle helmet. A weapon had not been recovered.
The police "believe the gunman is still in the mall", Baratta said. "Right now the Bergen County Swat team along with the canine unit and other law enforcement are going store by store. It's a very large mall with multiple levels." Witnesses said the sound of gunfire sent customers and employees rushing for the exits and hiding places.
/>Baratta said authorities found one bullet casing.
Jonathan Astacio, a witness who was inside the mall, told CNN he heard several shots: "We heard two loud booms ... Then we heard two more shots and saw people running." Hundreds of law enforcement officers converged on the mall, which was put on lockdown. New Jersey state police landed a helicopter in the parking lot of one of the state's largest and most popular shopping malls.
The mayor of Paramus, Richard LaBarbiera, told reporters that no injuries had yet been reported. Baratta said Swat teams and police with canine units were going through the mall and working to evacuate anyone still inside. As of early Tuesday authorities believed there were still people in the mall, she said.
One woman at a store in the mall, who asked Reuters not to disclose what store she was hiding in, reported hearing shots. Nick Woods was working in a Lego store when a woman ran by shouting that there was a shooting.
/>Woods said his supervisor locked them in a back room, along with a woman, a man and a child.
"I heard the shooting. We're still stuck in the stock room right now. I personally heard five shots," said the woman. Afraid the shooter may still be free, she said: "I haven't gone out again." When they peeked out two hours later, they saw police officers standing outside and he called the police emergency dispatcher to ask that the officers be told they were coming out. He said the emergency operator told him she could not contact individual police officers and that he should walk out with his hands in the air.
"I had to go out of the store shouting at the officers with my hands up and they turned and pointed their guns at me," Woods said. "It was one of the scariest experiences of my life."
Jessica Stigliano, 21, of Richfield, New Jersey, said she was sitting in the mall's food court when she saw people running and yelling "shots were fired".
Carlos Sinde, 36, of Astoria, Queens, said he was ushered out of a cinema screening of the movie Gravity. "Once the security guards started telling us what was going on, that's when there was hysteria," he said.
The mall is located in Bergen county, about 15 miles (24km) north-west of Manhattan.
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