Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
2 shot at Aventura Mall after argument
Victims hospitalized; no employees or bystanders injured
An argument erupted into gunfire Friday at Aventura Mall and left two people hospitalized, police said.
Four people were involved in the melee, including the two people who were shot, but no employees or bystanders were injured, police said.
Officers took the two other men into custody for questioning. One is the suspected shooter, but no one had been charged late Friday.
The shooting was reported about 11:20 a.m. on the west side of Nordstrom. Police didn’t say what the dispute was about but believe those involved all knew each other, said Sgt. Hans Maestre, spokesman for the Aventura Police Department.
The store’s security and Aventura police officers assigned to the mall responded to the shooting. They determined there was no threat to the public and began treating the two injured people.
Officers recovered a gun at the scene, Maestre said.
“This appears to be some kind of a dispute between two parties,” he said.
Police secured the area around the Nordstrom store, but the rest of the mall, at 19501 Biscayne
Blvd., reopened.
The two who were injured in the gunfire were taken to the emergency room at Aventura Hospital, where one was in critical condition, Maestre said.
Both have been stabilized and are expected to survive, he said.
Solomon Konig and his adult son, Michael Konig, did not witness the incident, but Michael Konig said it did not faze him.
“Aventura cops are running around here all the time,” he said as the pair walked through the mall’s parking lot after the shooting.
“Very few things rattle me around here. There’s too much going on to handle these days.”
William Hubbell heard about the shooting but that didn’t stop him from coming to the mall Friday afternoon.
“I think it was an isolated incident and everything is back to normal,” he said.