A 17-year-old was killed in a shooting in the area of the food court at The Mall in Columbia in Howard County, Maryland on Saturday, according to police.
Police said Angelo Little of Columbia was killed by a suspect after at least one shot was fired “during an altercation between two people” in the mall’s food court area.
They said it is believed that the victim was targeted.
It happened around 6:10 p.m. Howard County Sheriff’s said that the mall was fully cleared at 9 p.m.
Police are offering a reward of up to $5,000 for information about the suspect or shooting.
“We don’t believe this is a random incident and we do believe it was a victim who was targeted,” police spokeswoman Sherry Llewellyn said during a news conference Saturday evening.
Police said investigators determined that the people involved in the shooting left the mall property.
Meanwhile, witnesses stuck inside the mall told WTOP just how frightening the incident was for them.
“That was the odd thing about it,” one man told WTOP. “I heard no commotion, no argument, no nothing. All I heard was pop — one shot.”
Llewellyn said that police worked to identify who was involved in the incident and escorted shoppers out of the mall in small groups to ensure investigators spoke to all potential 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.”
Llewellyn said Howard County’s police response was informed by a 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 investigating the incident.
Anyone with information should contact police at 410-313-STOP or HCPDcrimetips@howardcountymd.gov.
WTOP’s Ralph Fox, Veronica Canales, Terik King and Grace Newton contributed to this report.
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