GARDENS MALL SITE OF GUN SALE THAT ‘WENT BAD’
No shots fired, no lockdown ordered, no one in custody.
Palm Beach Gardens police are investigating an incident in which the alleged sale of a firearm “went bad” in the parking lot of The Gardens Mall. This comes 10 days after a shooting in the mall’s parking lot during the busy holiday season.
At 5 p.m., police were called to a fight in the Saks Fifth Avenue parking lot inside a vehicle, according to Major Ed Guillen. Three people, who are not from Palm Beach Gardens, were at the mall as a “halfway point to meet.”
From what police understand, those involved were trying to sell a gun.
“Somehow or another, that transaction went bad and there was an altercation,” Guillen said.
He said at least two people involved fled through the mall to get to the other side where police believe another car was parked. He said that everyone involved knew each other.
“This definitely wasn’t a random situation,” Guillen said. “A handgun involved ... in a populated mall, we wanted to make sure everyone was safe.”
Police said there were no shots fired. No one is in custody, but the person who reported the incident is being interviewed.
Guillen said police did not order a lockdown on the mall, but he understood that some stores decided to close on their own. Mall representatives could not be reached for comment Monday
Gardens Police Major Ed Guillen said that everyone involved knew each other.
evening.
Posts on Facebook and Instagram show several people in storage areas and bathrooms of stores like Gap and Lily Pulitzer with captions that said they were on lock down.
This incident comes in the wake of the parking lot shooting on Nov. 17. Police arrested the alleged shooter, 23-year-old Dimitri Andrew Virginia, who reportedly said the shooting was in selfdefense to protect his mother. No one was injured.
According to a police report, Virginia said the incident started in the mall’s food court when 21-yearold Jamel Mechon Roseau punched him in an “unprovoked attack.” Virginia faces charges of aggravated assault with a weapon, shooting into an occupied vehicle and discharging a firearm in public. Roseau faces one charge of battery.
Virginia said “the two of them had differences in the past over drug rip-offs involving unnamed acquaintances of them both.”