Police Respond to Reports of Gunfire at South Carolina Mall
A South Carolina mall was evacuated on Saturday after the police received reports of gunfire and injuries, officials said.
“We have confirmed that people have been injured during the incident — they are receiving medical attention,” the Columbia Police Department said on Twitter around 2:45 p.m. after responding to the mall, the Columbiana Centre in Columbia, S.C.
Details of the severity and kinds of injuries were not immediately available. It was also unclear what exactly happened.
A spokeswoman for Prisma Health, which operates hospitals in Columbia, said she had received a report of a “potential mass casualty” event but did not have any information about the number of people injured.
“We’re still determining the scope of the incident,” the hospital spokeswoman, Rebecca Munnerlyn, said.
The police were instructing mall workers to shelter in place and wait for law enforcement officers to come to them. “DO NOT leave a store until told to do so by proper authorities,” the police said on Twitter.
Brookfield Properties, which owns the Columbiana Centre, said that it was aware of the emergency response to the mall but deferred questions to the police.
The Lexington County Sheriff’s Department said on Twitter that a reunification site “for those with loved ones involved in the Columbiana Mall shooting” would be at a local Fairfield Inn.
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