- Ten people were shot and two were trampled in a
shooting at aSouth Carolina mall on Saturday. - Authorities have detained three people, the police chief said.
A dozen people were injured Saturday afternoon in a shooting incident at the Columbiana Mall in Columbia, South Carolina, police said.
Columbia Police Chief Skip Holbrook told reporters in a press conference that three people have been detained so far, but that authorities are referring to them as "people of interest" rather than suspects.
No one was killed in the shooting, but 10 people suffered gunshot wounds and two were injured during the "stampede" that followed the shooting, Holbrook said. He added that the oldest gunshot victim was 73 and the youngest was 15.
Eight people in total were taken to area hospitals, with two of the gunshot victims in critical condition and six in stable condition, Holbrook said.
—Columbia Police Dept (@ColumbiaPDSC) April 16, 2022
He said authorities were called to the mall around 2:30 p.m. after gunfire broke out near the Gap store.
"What we know is at least three people were seen with firearms in the mall, and at least one person fired a weapon," Holbrook said, adding that the information was still preliminary and could change.
The Columbia Police Department said Saturday evening that investigators believe the shooting "may have stemmed from an isolated conflict between the armed suspects." Holbrook said earlier that police "don't believe this was random."
Holbrook urged witnesses to contact authorities with any further information, adding that "a lot of people saw a lot of different things."
"This is not a situation where we had some random individual show up at a mall and start shooting people," Holbrook said.
Holbrook said law enforcement teams were still inside the mall as of 5 p.m. EST clearing out stores one at a time.