PORTLAND, Ore. — A suburban Portland mall remained closed Wednesday while crime scene experts detail the shooting that left three people dead and one wounded and sent Santa and thousands of shoppers running.
The shooter, dressed in camouflage and a mask, was a man in his 20s who apparently fired at random before taking his own life, said Clackamas County sheriff’s Sgt. Adam Phillips.
There’s no known connection between the gunman and the man and woman who were killed and the young woman who was wounded. Kristina Shevchenko is in serious condition, Oregon Health & Science University Hospital in Portland said early Wednesday.
Phillips said that Tuesday afternoon’s shooting at a mall with 7,000 customers and 2,000 employees could have been much worse. Stores and police followed training from a shooting drill at the mall earlier this year.
The mall Santa, Brance Wilson, was waiting for the next child’s Christmas wish when shots rang out, causing the shopping mall to erupt into chaos.
About to invite a child to hop onto his lap, Wilson instead dove for the floor and kept his head down as he heard shots being fired upstairs in the mall.
“I heard two shots and got out of the chair. I thought a red suit was a pretty good target,” said the 68-year-old Wilson. Families waiting for Santa scattered. More shots followed, and Wilson crept away for better cover.
Witnesses said the gunman fired several times near the mall food court until the rifle jammed and he dropped a magazine onto the floor, then ran into the Macy’s store.
Witnesses heard the gunman saying, “I am the shooter,” as he fired rounds from a semi-automatic rifle inside the Clackamas Town Center, a popular suburban mall several miles from downtown Portland.
Some were close enough to the shooter to feel the percussion of his gun.
Police rapid-response teams came into the mall with guns drawn, telling everyone to leave. Shoppers and mall employees who were hiding stayed in touch with loved ones with cellphones and texting.
Police said they had tentatively identified the gunman but would not release his name or give any information on a possible motive.
Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts told NBC’s “Today” show Wednesday that it appears to have been a random shooting and the gunman was seemingly targeting “anyone who was in his line of sight.”
“It was very apparent that he had a mission set forth to really take the lives of people in that mall,” Roberts said.
The shooting started around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday. It was not clear how long it lasted, but some shoppers and employees hid in fear for at least two hours as teams of police checked to see whether there might be another shooter.
Kayla Sprint, 18, was interviewing for a job at a clothing store when she heard shots.
“We heard people running back here screaming, yelling ‘911,’” she told The Associated Press.
Sprint barricaded herself in the store’s back room until the coast was clear.
Jason DeCosta, a manager of a window-tinting company that has a display on the mall’s ground floor, said when he arrived to relieve his co-worker, he heard shots ring out upstairs.
The shooter, dressed in camouflage and a mask, was a man in his 20s who apparently fired at random before taking his own life, said Clackamas County sheriff’s Sgt. Adam Phillips.
There’s no known connection between the gunman and the man and woman who were killed and the young woman who was wounded. Kristina Shevchenko is in serious condition, Oregon Health & Science University Hospital in Portland said early Wednesday.
Phillips said that Tuesday afternoon’s shooting at a mall with 7,000 customers and 2,000 employees could have been much worse. Stores and police followed training from a shooting drill at the mall earlier this year.
The mall Santa, Brance Wilson, was waiting for the next child’s Christmas wish when shots rang out, causing the shopping mall to erupt into chaos.
About to invite a child to hop onto his lap, Wilson instead dove for the floor and kept his head down as he heard shots being fired upstairs in the mall.
“I heard two shots and got out of the chair. I thought a red suit was a pretty good target,” said the 68-year-old Wilson. Families waiting for Santa scattered. More shots followed, and Wilson crept away for better cover.
Witnesses said the gunman fired several times near the mall food court until the rifle jammed and he dropped a magazine onto the floor, then ran into the Macy’s store.
Witnesses heard the gunman saying, “I am the shooter,” as he fired rounds from a semi-automatic rifle inside the Clackamas Town Center, a popular suburban mall several miles from downtown Portland.
Some were close enough to the shooter to feel the percussion of his gun.
Police rapid-response teams came into the mall with guns drawn, telling everyone to leave. Shoppers and mall employees who were hiding stayed in touch with loved ones with cellphones and texting.
Police said they had tentatively identified the gunman but would not release his name or give any information on a possible motive.
Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts told NBC’s “Today” show Wednesday that it appears to have been a random shooting and the gunman was seemingly targeting “anyone who was in his line of sight.”
“It was very apparent that he had a mission set forth to really take the lives of people in that mall,” Roberts said.
The shooting started around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday. It was not clear how long it lasted, but some shoppers and employees hid in fear for at least two hours as teams of police checked to see whether there might be another shooter.
Kayla Sprint, 18, was interviewing for a job at a clothing store when she heard shots.
“We heard people running back here screaming, yelling ‘911,’” she told The Associated Press.
Sprint barricaded herself in the store’s back room until the coast was clear.
Jason DeCosta, a manager of a window-tinting company that has a display on the mall’s ground floor, said when he arrived to relieve his co-worker, he heard shots ring out upstairs.