Howard County, Maryland, police issued a lockdown and started an investigation Saturday after an altercation at The Mall in Columbia turned into a deadly shooting.
Officers responded to reports of an active shooting incident that started at around 6:10 p.m. in the mall, according to a Howard County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson.
Shots rang out “during an altercation between two people” in the mall’s food court area, police said, killing one unidentified male.
“We don’t believe this is a random incident and we do believe it was a victim who was targeted,” spokesperson Sherry Llewellyn said during a press conference Saturday evening.
Police have since determined that the people involved in the shooting left the mall property.
Llewellyn said that police worked to identify who was involved in this incident and walked patrons out of the mall in small groups to ensure they spoke to any witnesses.
“There’s no safety reason, really, that we’re escorting them out rather than sort of opening the doors and letting everyone come out at once,” Llewellyn said. “It’s really for investigative reasons.”
Howard County Sheriff’s confirmed that the mall was cleared at 9 p.m.
The spokesperson also said Howard County’s police response was informed by an previous active shooter situation at the Columbia Mall. That person killed two people and himself in January of 2014.
“Sadly, we had an active shooter incident — which was different from tonight’s incident — a few years ago, which really enabled us to ramp up our training and our coordination with the mall,” Llewellyn said. “So everyone did know the right things … to ensure their safety tonight and, we’re glad to report, there are no other injuries and there’s no other danger.”
Officials in Howard County are currently investigating the incident. No one is being let inside the mall while the investigation is ongoing.
WTOP’s Ralph Fox, Veronica Canales, Terik King and Grace Newton contributed to this report.
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