Police in California evacuated a shopping mall on Friday, one of the busiest shopping days of the year, after a shooting left multiple people with gunshot wounds, reports the AP. The shooting was an isolated incident, the San Jose Police Department said on the X social media platform, noting that the three individuals who were shot suffered non-life-threatening injuries. Authorities say those wounded in the attack, which is said to have taken place outside of a Macy's store at the Westfield Valley Fair Mall in Santa Clara, include two adults and a teen, per NBC Bay Area.
"We were just eating dinner at California Pizza Kitchen and all of a sudden a stampede of people [came] running our way," one witness tells KTVU. "I did hear a couple shots there at the end. We ended up hiding in somebody's backyard ... like 10, 15 of us for about 30 minutes." Officers evacuated and cleared the mall to confirm there was no threat to public safety. The wounded were taken to local hospitals, police said. San Jose and Santa Clara are neighboring cities about 50 miles south of San Francisco.
Police say they believe a male suspect, who fled the scene, used a handgun in the shootings. They also say this doesn't look like a random targeting of "unsuspecting shoppers." "Something had occurred between this male and one of our victims ... and then the shooting occurred," a rep for the San Jose PD says. "However, we're still trying to figure out what transpired prior to the shooting." Police are asking anyone with cellphone video of the chaos that may help in the investigation to contact them.
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