Durham off-duty police were on duty Friday afternoon inside The Streets at Southpoint shopping mall when they heard gunshots coming from inside the mall and called for assistance, said Durham Police Chief Patrice. Andrews said.
Andrews said response officers found three people had been shot in an incident between two groups of people who knew each other.
Among those shot was a 10-year-old child who was hit by a ricochet bullet, according to Andrews. She said the child was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
“The shootings in this city must stop. It must stop,” the sheriff said.
According to Andrews, most of the people involved in the shooting fled after the incident but one person is in custody, a weapon has been recovered and police are interviewing witnesses.
Three people were injured when the mall, filled with Black Friday shoppers, was evacuated following the incident, according to Andrews.
“There are no more threats at the mall,” they said.
Before fleeing the scene, two witnesses at the mall told CNN they heard multiple gunshots. Darian Harrington told CNN he was cleaning his shoes near Victoria’s Secret at the mall.
“Suddenly, I saw people running, and I didn’t think about it, so I froze,” he said.
He later said he heard multiple gunshots nearby.
“I immediately went to the first exit I could find,” he said. “I just started seeing people rushing from all directions.”
Hadley Connell told CNN she also heard multiple shots being fired as she and her fiancé sat in the food court on the second floor.
“The gunfire was followed by what sounded like a shower on a tin roof as people started screaming, running and shoving each other,” Connell said.
“We ran towards the bathroom of the mall near the food court as people were rushing, and a few security guards started to realize what was going on,” she said. “Security guided us down the staff corridor and stairs as they tried to help the elderly and those with children out of the building. Then we ran to the other side of the complex parking lot. shopping mall, and we were stuck in our parking lot as people tried to evacuate.”
Aerial video from WRAL shows a near-vehicle parking lot of shoppers at the mall, which is witnessing one of the busiest shopping days of the year.
CNN’s Paul Murphy contributed to this report.
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