HOWARD COUNTY, Md. — Police are investigating a deadly shooting inside a Howard County mall Saturday.
According to information posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, by Howard County Police, the shooting happened inside Columbia Mall. While the shooting happened inside the mall, police say there are no indications of any active shooter.
Very little is known about the shooting at this time, but police have said it happened during an altercation in the mall's food court area. There is no word on what caused that altercation but police have said it was between two people, the victim and the shooter. That shooter has not been apprehended.
One person was killed in the shooting. The victim has only been identified as a man. In a press conference hours after the shooting, officials said they believe the shooter targeted the victim.
"This was a situation where we believe that this was an altercation that occurred between two people, this was not something that our investigators believe was a random incident or an accident, this is something that they believe was intentional," said Sherry Llewellyn with the Howard County Police Department.
One witness told WUSA9 that he was at the mall while working as a DoorDash driver and saw the aftermath of the shooting.
“As I left the bathroom I was like nah that’s a gunshot," witness, Kirby said. “I turned to my right, I saw the body on the floor, bleeding at the head."
Another witness described the terror she felt after hearing the gunshot and had to crawl into a nearby store in search of safety.
“I heard the sound ‘boom’ first one and then there were two more shots that I heard," witness, Aliyu Atiku said. "I started running, it was chaotic and I fell down so I crawled into a store. It’s the first time I’ve experienced something like that. Usually, I see it in the movies."