GUNMAN OPENS FIRE AT OREGON SHOPPING MALL
Police say three people are dead, including the gunman, after a shooting at a shopping mall in the Portland, Ore., area.
Clackamas County sheriff’s Lieut. James Rhodes says the gunman fatally shot two people, and another person was wounded, in the Tuesday afternoon shooting at the Clackamas Town Center.
Rhodes says the gunman is also dead, but did not say how he died.
Hundreds of holiday shoppers and store employees fled the mall after the shots rang out at about 3:30 p.m. Many others hid in stores. Rhodes said deputies were going through the mall Tuesday night to get all the people out.
Kira Rowland told KGWTV she was shopping at Macy’s with her baby when the shots started. “All of a sudden you hear two shots, which sounded like balloons popping,” Rowland told the station. “Everybody got on the ground. I grabbed the baby from the stroller and got on the ground.”
Rowland said she heard people screaming and crying.
“I put the baby back in the stroller and ran like hell,” Rowland said. “It was awful. It was shots after shots after shots, like a massacre. “It was just awful.” Holli Bautista, 28, said she was shopping in Macy’s for a Christmas dress for her daughter when she heard a two or three pops that sounded like firecrackers.
“I heard people running and screaming and saying ‘Get out, there’s somebody shooting’,” she told The Associated Press. “It was a scene of chaos.” She said hundreds of shoppers and mall employees started running, and she and dozens of other people were trying to escape through an exit in the department store.
Bautista said the Macy’s opens into the food court area, where it was reported the shootings took place. Bautista said it sounded like the shots were coming from that direction.
Once Bautista made it out of the mall, police officers directed her and the other shoppers across the street to another shopping centre.
As she looked across the street, Bautista said she could see hundreds of police officers, firefighters and emergency workers pouring in.
“They’re coming in from multiple different agencies. There’s tons of ambulances lined up,” she said.
Macy’s employees Pam Moore and Austin Patty told the AP the shooter was short, with dark hair, dressed in camouflage. He had body armour and a rifle and wore a white mask, they said.
“I heard about 20 shots and everyone hit the ground,” Moore said. “That’s when we all just ran.”