Breaking: Shooting at mall in Melbourne, Florida
Police are on the scene, have the shooter contained
A deadly shooting at a Florida mall left two people dead and one wounded Saturday morning after a man opened fire on his wife and another victim before turning the gun on himself.
After responding to reports around 9:30 a.m. of multiple shots fired inside the Melbourne Square Mall, police tweeted that the "shooter is contained" and that officers were clearing the mall store by store.
Melbourne Mayor Kathy Meehan told Florida Today the shooting stemmed from a domestic dispute between a woman who worked in the Melbourne Square Mall food court and the woman's husband.
She said the man had a gun and shot his wife. A co-worker of the woman then tried to get the gun away from the husband and was shot in the struggle and died. The mayor said the husband than apparently shot himself.
At a Saturday afternoon press conference Melbourne police said the husband, identified as Jose Garcia Rodriguez, died at the hospital of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was in possession of three handguns and was carrying rounds of ammunition in his pockets.
Police said the man's wife Ida Garcia was his intended target. She was in good condition at Holmes Regional Medical Center in downtown Melbourne. She was cooperating with detectives.
Garcia's co-worker who was killed was not immediately identified.
Melbourne Police Commander Vince Pryce said the shooting occurred around 9:30 a.m. Saturday, a half-hour before the mall's scheduled opening. There were about 100 people in the mall, most of them retail workers getting ready to open their stores for the day.
When the first officers arrived on the scene they could still here shots being fired, Pryce said.
At around 10:30 a.m. the department tweeted that officers were "currently working a shooting" and "have control of (the) situation" at the mall.
Within half an hour, police tweeted again that the "shooter is contained" and that officers were evacuating the mall store by store. Store employees and others were instructed to exit the mall through rear entrances.
Elizabeth Trickle told Florida Today that she and a friend were in the food court and heard several shots from a short distance away. She said they ran for their lives.
"It was a frightening experience, something that you don't ever want anybody to experience," Trickle told the paper. “It was crazy. We had just gotten our food to sit down by Starbucks and Chik-fil-A, and you just hear the 'pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop,' and you just drop everything and your body just makes you run."
The mall did not reopen but was expected to open Sunday.
"Due to the unfortunate incident at the mall this morning we are closed until further notice," mall officials posted on Facebook. "We are still gathering information as the police conduct their investigation."
The Associated Press contributed to this report
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