A man killed by a police officer after a Thanksgiving night shooting at an Alabama shopping mall was “likely” not the gunman who shot a teenager earlier that evening, police said on Friday, while a man was shot in the wrist at a shopping mall in New Jersey.
The incident in Alabama began with a fight and shooting in the glitzy mall crowded with Black Friday bargain hunters.
An 18-year-old was shot twice and a 12-year-old bystander was shot in the back.
An officer responding to the scene then shot and killed 21-year-old Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford Jr of Hueytown, Alabama, who police said was fleeing the scene brandishing a weapon.
Police initially told reporters they thought Bradford had shot the teen after a fight, but retracted that statement Friday night.
“New evidence now suggests that while Mr Bradford may have been involved in some aspect of the altercation, he likely did not fire the rounds that injured the 18-year-old victim,” Hoover Police Captain Gregg Rector said in a statement.
A witness, Lexi Joiner, told Al.com that she was shopping with her mother when the gunfire started. Joiner said she heard six or seven shots and was ordered into a supply closet for cover.
“It was terrifying,” Joiner said.
A woman who described herself as the mother of the injured 12-year-old posted on social media that the girl was on a Black Friday shopping trip with other family members when the shooting happened, and did not immediately realize that the pain in her back was from a bullet.
“She was hurting a lot, but very brave and positive as always,” the mother wrote after seeing the girl when she arrived at a hospital.
Meanwhile, a man was shot during Black Friday shopping at a New Jersey mall, sending terrified shoppers running and hiding in stores. He was shot in the wrist at The Mills at Jersey Gardens in Elizabeth, New Jersey, city spokeswoman Kelly Martins said.
She said his injuries did not appear life-threatening.
No suspect was in custody and the victim was not cooperating with police, Martins said.
The mall was evacuated after the shooting, which happened in a hallway between a Tommy Hilfiger and a Marshalls store, Martins said.
Carli Disla, her boyfriend and their six-week-old daughter were in a Cohoes fashion store, heading to the cash registers, when the couple noticed people running.
“They were yelling: “Hide, everyone, hide! They are shooting!’” Disla, 22, told reporters.
In Highland, Indiana, Black Friday excitement briefly turned into panic after a customer at a Meijer store mistook a toy grenade for a real one.
The US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents, police, firefighters and a bomb squad were called shortly afternoon to the store, the Times of Northwest Indiana reported.
Shoppers and employers were evacuated until authorities determined the toy grenade posed no threat.
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