Police say they are going through video footage and talking to scores of witnesses in search of a suspect in what’s believed was a targeted shooting at a large Calgary-area shopping mall.
A man who was shot on Monday night at CrossIron Mills remains in hospital in serious but non-life-threatening condition.
RCMP Inspector Kimberley Pasloske says officers who arrived within minutes after a report about 7 p.m. of shots being fired found the victim.
She says a slender man dressed in black and an accomplice fled the scene in a 2019 black Dodge Ram pickup truck and remain at large.
Insp. Pasloske says the attack took place in the parking lot just outside the mall’s food court.
“Happening in such a public place in such a busy time is concerning,” Insp. Pasloske said at a Tuesday news conference.
“But we were able to attend the scene within minutes and secure the scene and provide for the patrons and employee safety.”
No one else was hurt. Shoppers were told to take shelter while police cleared each store looking for the shooter.
A number of vehicles were also stopped attempting to leave the mall.
“As you can understand, this was a rather chaotic incident that came into us. There were numerous descriptors of vehicles that were fleeing the scene in an erratic way. We did stop a number of them and the vehicles we stopped were all citizens leaving the scene,” Insp. Pasloske said.
She said that while the focus after the shooting was the safety of those at the mall, the investigation now begins in earnest.
“We need to go through the video surveillance. We need to access those witnesses that may have observed things and simply fled the scene.”
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