Once again a story of violence during the holiday shopping spree known as Black Friday has had a serious and deadly outcome. This time the incident took place at the Riverchase Galleria Mall in Hoover, Alabama, near the city of Birmingham. Riverchase Galleria Mall is the largest mall in Alabama and there were several thousand shoppers inside.
It was there that an unidentified gunman, 21, got into a verbal altercation with another shopper, 18, that turned deadly. Hoover Police Chief Nick Derzis told media that the gunman pulled a weapon and opened fire indiscriminately hitting the 18-year-old and a 12-year-old-girl. Shoppers fled in panic at the sound of gunfire and police in the mall responded to the altercation. According to police and witnesses, some shoppers pulled their own handguns during the chaos.
“The shooting happened at 9:52 p.m., we received a call of shots fired outside of Foot Action. We already had multiple officers working at the mall for traffic control and police presence inside,” said Hoover police Capt. Gregg Rectors.
As the shooter was fleeing, he was confronted by two police officers and one of the officers shot the gunman, killing him at the scene. Rectors stated to the media, “The Hoover police officer actually was running to the scene, he heard gunshots, he was obviously very near the scene, he actually shot and killed the person who injured the other person.”
The victims of the shooting were transported to a nearby hospital and are expected to fully recover from their injuries. Shoppers present started filming the chaos and soon video and images were uploaded to Twitter and Facebook showing the chaos.
A video of the mall during the active shooter event can be viewed below:
Someone posted this shooting in the mall at river riverchase Galleria in Hoover Alabama on Thanksgiving pic.twitter.com/3WczyXqu7A
— Nicole (@Nprezzed) November 23, 2018
A second video shows the victims at the mall and can be seen on the next page. (Graphic)
