SALT LAKE CITY A man with a shotgun entered a shopping mall and began randomly shooting customers Monday night, killing five people and injuring at least four others before being killed, police said.
More than three hours later, police still were searching stores for shocked shoppers and employees who were hunkered down awaiting a safe escort from the Trolley Square mall.
ldquo;We have six fatalities and multiple victims at hospitals, rdquo; police Detective Robin Snyder said. ldquo;They were found throughout the mall.
I don't know male or female or ages. rdquo;
At least four people were hospitalized, three in critical condition and one in serious condition, hospital spokesmen said. Two of the critically injured were a 16-year-old male and a 50-year-old man, a spokesman said.
Salt Lake City Police officers gather inside the Trolley Square Mall after a gunman went on a shooting rampage on Monday in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Mike Terry/ Deseret Morning News/AP)
Authorities offered few details about the shootings but said the gunman entered the enclosed mall about 6:45 p.m.
The two-storey building, southeast of downtown, is a refurbished trolley barn, with a series of winding hallways and about 80 stores.
Antique store owner Barrett Dodds, 29, said he saw a man in a trenchcoat exchanging gunfire with a police officer outside a card store. The gunman, he said, was backed into a children's clothing store.
ldquo;I saw the cops go in the store. I saw the shooter go down, rdquo; said Mr. Dodds, who watched from the second floor.
Barb McKeown, 60, of Washington, D.C., was in another antique shop when two frantic women ran in and reported gunshots.
ldquo;Then we heard shot after shot after shot mdash; loud, loud, loud, rdquo; said Ms. McKeown, saying she heard about 20. She and three other people hid under a staircase until it was safe to leave.
Many employees and shoppers mdash; ldquo;a lot of scared people rdquo; mdash; were still inside the mall hours after the shootings, waiting to leave, Det. Snyder said.
ldquo;This is a huge area to cover, rdquo; she said.
Streets were blocked outside the mall as police swarmed the two-block scene. Dozens of people lingered on the sidewalk, many wrapped in blankets as they talked about what they had seen inside.
An off-duty officer from Ogden was in the mall and involved in the shooting, said Ogden police Sgt.
Blaine Clifford, who declined to release the officer's name.
The officer was not injured, but ldquo;I don't know anything more, rdquo; Sgt. Clifford said.
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