Gunman Arrested After Shooting One at Florida Mall

BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. – A gunman fatally shot a man in a fight at a crowded mall on Sunday, then sent hundreds of Christmas shoppers running for cover as he fired at police chasing him, authorities said.

SWAT team members arrested the suspect after he barricaded himself in a department store at the Boynton Beach Mall, north of Miami, said Boynton Beach Police Lt. Jeffrey Katz said.

The mall was evacuated, and Katz said it was miraculous no one else was injured when the shooting broke out in midafternoon.

"The suspect ran through the mall and began to fire at officers as they were chasing him through the mall," Katz said. "Our officers did not return fire."

Sinette White, 19, of Lake Worth, told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel she heard popping sounds while getting her nails done and then saw a man on the ground.

She said shoppers gathered around the man as police arrived to give CPR, but then they heard more shots and police told them to take cover. She said the mall was locked down for about an hour before she was evacuated.

The gunman barricaded himself in part of a Dillard's store and refused to surrender when officers contacted him through the public address system, Katz said. A SWAT team entered the store and captured the man without incident, he said.

Katz said "a couple" other men were being questioned by police, Katz said.

A mall spokesman, Sam Yates, said the shooting was outside of a store inside the shopping complex.

It was not immediately clear what started the fight. The names of the victims and the shooter have not been released.

Mall officials said the mall has been closed for the rest of the day.

In North Carolina, a man was charged with attempted murder Sunday following a shooting at a Greensboro mall packed with last-minute shoppers a day earlier. One man was critically wounded by gunfire shortly before the Four Seasons Town Centre closed Saturday.

It was the second shooting this weekend at a North Carolina mall.

One man was slightly wounded at Charlotte's Eastland Mall on Friday evening when an argument between two groups of men ended with one firing through glass entrance doors. No arrests were immediately made.