8 hurt in shopping mall shooting

8 injured in Washington state mall shooting
Tacoma mall reportedly locked down as police search for shooter

BREAKING NEWS
MSNBC News Services
Updated: 4:49 p.m. ET Nov. 20, 2005
TACOMA, Wash. - Eight people were being treated for injuries after shots were fired at a Tacoma shopping mall on Sunday, hospital officials said. There was no immediate word on their condition.

The mall was locked down as police searched for the shooter, according to a Tacoma Fire Department official.

State Patrol and police units from nearby agencies were clustered around an entrance at the mall's south end.

Betz Dejarnatt, who works at the JC Penny inside the mall, said she heard at three shots.

"I thought, that sounds like a gun," Dejarnatt said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. She said some workers were herded into dressing rooms and offices, then police had them filed outside to a parking lot.

Numerous callers into Seattle's KING 5 TV described the scene.

Shopper **** Waldo described a person running by and shooting as he ran.

"An individual had just come running through a cross section and I heard some fire so I just told everybody to drop," Waldo told KING 5, "and then the individual started running toward the other end of the mall."

Then, Waldo said, "chaos just happened," Waldo said as the shots were fired.

Mall employee Rebecca Lawson told KING 5 she was outside the mall in the parking lot when the incident occurred shortly before 12:30 p.m. She said a colleague told her that she had heard 10 shots fired in the area outside the food court.

Re: 8 hurt in shopping mall shooting

Re: 8 hurt in shopping mall shooting

and I think it was this AM on the news where they said they are going to "Step up security" in malls.