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Beachwood Mall On Lockdown In Ohio After Stampede, Claims Of Shooting [Videos]

By Paula Mooney
Published on: 12:16 PST, Dec 26, 2016

The video of people running through Beachwood Mall, an upscale mall near Cleveland, Ohio, is quickly getting views, as seen below. Warning: The below video may contain language that’s disturbing. Despite claims of a shooting in Beachwood Mall, any shots allegedly fired have not yet been confirmed as of this writing. One of the seven-second videos below, taken from the second floor of Beachwood Mall, displays audio of a person claiming someone is shooting inside Beachwood Mall, and after that, people begin running in the mall.

Reports of people being stuck inside of Beachwood Mall as Beachwood Mall was placed on lockdown are showing up in social media, but authorities have not confirmed as of this writing if someone was really shooting inside the mall. According to News Net 5, Beachwood Mall is on lockdown. Those familiar with Beachwood Mall enjoy the upscale stores within the mall, such as Victoria’s Secret, Forever 21, a Lego store and plenty of other retailers that have long held space in the mall.

On Twitter, the word Beachwood alone has garnered more than 2,000 tweets — with the social media platform reporting that related searches such as Beachwood Place, Beachwood Mall, “beachwoodmall” and Beachwood shooting are also trending. On Facebook, folks are trying to figure out if there was really a shooting at Beachwood, or if there was some sort of fireworks incident like there was at a different mall around the country, which caused a similar stampede. As reported by Heavy, Hamilton Place Mall experienced quite a scare when someone allegedly threw a handful of firecrackers inside a store, causing shoppers to believe there was an active shooter. Panic and a stampede resulted, with injuries reported.

People are also writing about their relief that their loved ones weren’t working at Beachwood mall — or shopping at Beachwood Mall — at the time of the melee.

Other videos like the below one show Snapchat video footage of the melee that happened the day after Christmas inside Beachwood Mall, as people streamed out of the mall and the person who wrote the Snapchat claiming they were in trouble. People bemoaned the fact that they picked the wrong day to go to Beachwood Mall. Others are praying for those affected by any alleged shooting at Beachwood Mall, while others are praying that Beachwood Mall doesn’t go the way of other Northeastern Ohio malls, like the abandoned Rolling Acres Mall.

However, for those still trapped inside Beachwood Mall, information is wanted. As reported by Cleveland.com in the below tweet, there was an altercation at Beachwood Mall that was broken up when police used pepper spray in order to break up the crowd.

As seen in the top photo above, the Saks Fifth Avenue store in the Beachwood Mall in Beachwood, Ohio, is shown. That photo shows the store back on Wednesday, March 7, 2007. However, Saks Fifth Avenue still exists within Beachwood Mall in 2016, nearly a decade after that photo was taken. The tony Saks Fifth Avenue store represents the upscale stores found within Beachwood Mall. Nearby Legacy Village also features plenty of upscale establishments.

Some of the comments being published to social media about the Beachwood Mall melee can be read below.

Sara Goldenberg: “Ambulance just showed up at #Beachwood Place. Large police presence, waiting on info from police. @cleveland19news”

Dan DeRoos: “Just spoke w woman on lock down at Sacs Beachwood. Tear gas used in main mall. They were told possible gun/shooting.”

Tia A. Ewing: “From an acquaintance currently on lockdown inside Beachwood Mall. Says a lot of [teens] showed up… then chaos erupted.”

[Featured Photo by Amy Sancetta/AP Images]

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