Helicopters buzzed overhead as numerous law enforcement vehicles swarmed the shopping area.
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Witnesses said that they heard one or two shots fired inside the mall.
One woman shared a video from inside of the mall shortly after the shooting reportedly occurred. Access in and out of the building has since been restricted with authorities stating that no one would be allowed in or out of the Crabtree Valley Mall.
Another eyewitness in the food court said she “played dead” along with her children before someone urged her to get out of the mall.
Police placed the Crabtree Valley shopping center on lockdown and officers escorted the remaining shoppers out of the mall, Raleigh Police Department dispatchers said. However, they were not gunshot injuries; she and Wake County EMS Director Jeff Hammerstein says the patients appeared to have suffered minor injuries in the evacuation of the mall.
He said: “Panic at Crabtree valley mall as crowds run for the doors”.
WRAL reports that police were called to the mall at approximately 2:45 pm this afternoon in response to the shooting. They said to keep to low, said police were on the scene’.
They turned and ran outside, along with a rush of other people.
Kristen Warring, 26, of Raleigh, was heading to a video game store with her boyfriend when they heard shots coming from the mall’s food court. “I’m used to seeing people fussing all the time in the food court”.
Video footage posted on social media showed dozens of shoppers rushing toward an exit.
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She said people heard what sounded like gunshots and investigators are examining all possibilities. DEVELOPING: We will add more details to this report as they become available. “And then there were more back toward the exit kind of telling people where to go”, Riggleman said. Zoe Hanks, 12, was at a hairdresser inside the mall, having the hair around her shoulders lightened, when word of an emergency came.
