Gunfire erupted inside a California mall packed with Black Friday shoppers, leaving three people wounded as terrified patrons ducked for cover and barricaded themselves inside stores for safety, police said.
The shooting started around 5:40 p.m. local time outside a Macy’s at the Westfield Valley Fair Mall in Santa Clara, located some 50 miles south of San Francisco.
When officers with the San Jose Police Department arrived on the scene, they found the victims — a man, a woman and a 16-year-old girl — suffering non-life-threatening injuries, local CW affiliate KRON 4 reported. They were all rushed to an area hospital and are expected to recover, police said.
While details surrounding the shooting remained scarce, police said it started out as a disagreement between a male shooter and the male victim, which eventually escalated into violence.
The other two victims were not involved in the initial spat. Authorities said they were bystanders but they have otherwise not yet been identified.
The gunman, who managed to flee before officers arrived on the scene, remained at large on Saturday. No information about the suspect has been released.
“This shooting appears to be an isolated incident and NOT an active shooter,” police said in a social media update at 6:31 p.m. “However, officers are evacuating and clearing the mall to confirm there is no ongoing threat to public safety.”
Westfield Valley Fair sits between the cities of Santa Clara and San Jose. It was crowded with shoppers on Friday, one of the busiest days in retail of the year, when the shooting broke out. Shopper Daniel Chen told KRON4 News he saw people running, and so he started to do the same.
“There were crowds and swarms of people. I was terrified. We were freaking out. Everyone was just screaming. It was complete chaos,” Chen said.
An investigation into the matter is ongoing.