One man was killed and two were injured Thursday night following a shooting at an Alabama mall full of early Black Friday shoppers.
The incident began with a physical altercation between an 18-year-old and a 21-year-old at the Riverchase Galleria in Hoover, a large suburb near Birmingham, CNN reported Friday.
{mosads}Police do not know what started the confrontation near the Footaction and JC Penney stores but the gunman opened fire, hitting the 18-year-old and a 12-year-old girl as hundreds of shoppers ran for cover.
“We do not believe at this point the 18-year-old was armed,” Hoover police Capt. Gregg Rector said.
Police first announced that a police officer had confronted the gunman as he ran away and fatally shot him.
Investigators, however, later said the slain man, 21-year-old Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford Jr., likely was not the shooter.
“New evidence now suggests that while Mr. Bradford may have been involved in some aspect of the altercation, he likely did not fire the rounds that injured the 18-year-old victim,” Rector said on Friday night to AL.com.
“We regret that our initial media release was not totally accurate, but new evidence indicates that it was not,’’ he later added.
The suspected gunman is still at large, police say.
The officer involved in the fatal shooting has been placed on administrative leave while the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office investigates.
WBRC reported that the mall reopen at 6 a.m. on Friday
The mall said in a statement that it was “devastated” by the incident but were “grateful for their swift action to contain the situation.”
Updated – Friday Nov. 24 at 7:40 a.m.