Here Are The Other Mall Shootings That Happened During Black Friday

Some malls in America rang in the shopping day with gun-related panic.
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In the hours before Black Friday, chaos broke out at a crowded mall in Hoover, Alabama, when a dispute between two people turned into gunfire, leaving an 18-year-old man and a 12-year-old bystander injured.

Police responding to the incident fatally shot Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford Jr., a 21-year-old man who they believed to be the gunman. Less than 24 hours later, the Hoover Police Department revealed that Bradford was not the suspected gunman, who remains at large.

While the shooting at the Riverchase Galleria made national news headlines, it wasn’t the only gun-related incident that caused chaos. On Thanksgiving night and Black Friday, at least three additional shootings occurred at malls in the U.S.

Here’s a list of shooting incidents that disrupted one of the biggest ― and already most aggressive ― shopping days of the year.

A New Jersey man was shot in the wrist.

One man was shot in the wrist in a hallway between two stores at The Mills at Jersey Gardens in Elizabeth, New Jersey, prompting stores to lock down immediately on Friday night. The shooting sent customers fleeing in search of shelter or exits. About 25,000 people were at the mall when the shooting occurred, Mayor Chris Bollwage said.

Police were still looking for the gunman as of Saturday night.

Man shot in the hand in Meridian, Mississippi.

Police said one person was shot in the hand during a fight between two people outside of the Bonita Lakes Mall in Meridian, Mississippi, on Friday afternoon.

Sgt. Dareall Thompson of the Meridian Police Department told the Meridian Star that the suspected gunman ran to his car during the altercation, retrieved a gun, and opened fire on the victim.

Stores located next to where the shooting occurred were placed on lockdown, but the rest of the mall remained open.

Police arrested Jarvonta Lanier, 19, and charged him with aggravated assault and gang activity, the Star reported.

A man said he was shot after looking at an “attractive woman” in Memphis, Tennessee.

A man told Memphis police officers that he looked at a woman he described as “attractive” inside the Oak Court Mall and was later shot by another man who was with her, according to Fox 13 Memphis.

After seeing the woman, the victim said he and his cousin left the mall. They allegedly got into a fight with the suspected gunman and three others outside of the mall in Memphis. Amid the fighting, the suspect was knocked out and then shot, according to the police report.

Police said a second victim, who was not shot, retrieved a gun and fired back at the four suspects and subsequently charged with illegal possession of a firearm. Police are still looking for the four suspects, who fled the mall in a white sedan.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story included an accidental firearm discharge in Columbia, Missouri, which occurred on Black Friday in 2017.

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