Three people were shot at a crowded North Carolina mall on Black Friday — leading to a "stampede" for the exits that may have injured others, according to reports.
"Durham Councilman Mark-Anthony Middleton told WRAL News that three people were shot at The Streets at Southpoint shopping center on Friday afternoon. One person is now in custody," the station reported Friday afternoon. "WRAL reporter Aaron Thomas happened to be shopping inside one of the mall's stores on Friday."
Thomas told the station: "We were in the Express store, and I was looking around at one of the clothing racks, and all of a sudden, I see this swarm of people running. At that point, it's like you don't know what to do, do you run out or do you stay in the store and try to hunker down. We did lock down and they locked the doors."
An employee of Sunglass Hut told the station, "We were working with customers, and then all we saw was people starting to run and screaming, and then everybody was just starting to panic."
Jonah Kaplan, a reporter from ABC Channel 11, reported on Twitter that, "As alarming as the shooting was to shoppers, witnesses telling me what happened next was equally frightening: the stampede towards the exit, which may have also led (to) serious injuries."
Kaplan later reported that the victims included a 10-year-old. According to police, he said, "gunshots broke out among two groups of people who knew each other; one person arrested & they are pursuing several others."
The video below shows shoppers running for the exits.
#URGENT: Emerging reports of shots fired at Southpoint Mall in Durham, North Carolina\n\n#Durham l #NC\nUnconfirmed reports indicate shots have been fired inside the mall, possibly near the food court. Mall lockdown protocol has now been initiated.\nUpdates to follow!pic.twitter.com/l3QqYBF8JY— Intel Point ALERT (@Intel Point ALERT) 1637960656
