Reports of gunshots inside a busy North Carolina mall caused chaos Saturday as shoppers ran screaming for the doors or sheltered in stores as dozens of officers converged arrived on the scene, witnesses said.
Raleigh police said they responded to reports that shots were fired inside Crabtree Valley Mall around 2:30 p.m. The mall in an affluent area of Raleigh was then put on lockdown. Helicopters buzzed overhead as numerous law enforcement vehicles swarmed the shopping area.
Police said in a statement about two hours later that they’d found no one with gunshot wounds, nor had they arrested a suspect. Video posted on social media sites shows dozens of people running toward mall exit doors as numerous screams were heard.
We are out of the mall, Raleigh PD evacuated stores in the food court area pic.twitter.com/QxvE4QuGYb— Tony Rice (@rtphokie) August 13, 2016
Outside the mall, where people gathered afterward, a police officer got on the loudspeaker on a fire truck and said there was no one shot in the mall.
Witnesses described what they heard as gunshots, followed by pandemonium.
