Harper Woods, MI. – A shooting happened outside of the Eastland Mall on Saturday, as shopper returned to the mall after being closed for the Christmas holiday. It was reported by The Detroit News.
Outside of Burlington Coat Factory, located on the south-east corner of the mall, a shooting happened at approximately 5:52 p.m. “We have one victim that was shot…” said Harper Woods Police Deputy Chief Ted Stager. “He was shot multiple times and he did pass away at the hospital” says Stager.
One subject that was associated with a group of guys involved in the shooting was taken into custody shortly following the incident, but it is not currently known if he was the shooter.
One account that the police have to investigate is that the victim was an innocent by-stander to an altercation between two groups of young men at the mall. Another allegation is that during and altercation between two groups, one person in one of the groups started to shoot randomly into a crowd.
Police are looking for any and all suspects at this time.
The victim is described to be a black male, in his late-teens to early-twenties.
When asked about keeping mall shoppers as safe as possible in these types of situations Stager says that “…that’s the first priority to make sure that any other people at the mall, to include any victims of the shooting, are safe or as safe as they can be”. He continues that “then we closed down the mall and detained everyone that was inside the mall”.
