A NJ mall shooting has prompted police to lock down a suburban mall after a man dressed in black and wearing a black helmet started firing shots.
The shooting reportedly began at the Garden State Plaza Mall in Paramus just after 9 pm, when the mall was close to closing. Witnesses say the man fired up to five shots, though Det. Rachel Morgan of the Paramus Police Department could not confirm whether shots had been fired.
There were several hundred police officers who responded to the NJ mall shooting, reports said.
Though the stores inside the Garden State Plaza Mall remain on lockdown, the shoppers and employees trapped inside have sent trickles of information via social media. One woman tweeted that she ran from the mall screaming, and others have described being escorted off the premises by New Jersey State Troopers.
The NJ mall shooting comes just days after a gunman opened fire in Los Angeles International Airport in a targeted attack against TSA officials. One TSA agent was killed and several other people injured.
It also follows a devastating terrorist attack on a mall in Kenya in September. Armed members of Al Shabaab, an Islamist militant group from Somalia, entered the upscale mall in suburban Nirobi and opened fire, killing dozens of people.
Though details of the NJ mall shooting remain sketchy, witnesses seem to indicate a targeted attack.
One witness told NBC 4 that he saw “a man dressed in all black, including a black helmet,” who was “carrying a rifle and started firing shots inside the mall.”
#BREAKING @MyFoxNY : multiple agencies looking for suspect. Reports of shots fired inside NJ Garden State Mall.
— Patrick Manning (@Manning_FoxNews) November 5, 2013
Others reported seeing SWAT teams enter the mall.
The gunman who opened fire inside a New Jersey mall has not yet been found by a SWAT sweep. http://t.co/wXzRnCUGfK
— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) November 5, 2013
There is no word yet on whether there are injuries from the NJ mall shooting or whether a suspect is in custody. Live video of the police response can be found here.
