San José police investigate incident – Telemundo Houston

SAN JOSÉ – A shooting inside the Oakridge Mall caused panic Monday, forcing hundreds of shoppers to take refuge inside stores on one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

The incident occurred around 6 p.m. when police received reports of a shooting inside the mall, just outside the Forever 21 store.

Starting at 11 p.m. Monday, police continued to go from store to store, escorting people out of the building in search of the suspect and the victim.

“It was a very chaotic scene for the first officers to arrive,” said Sgt. Christian Camarillo of the San José Police Department.

Police gave the go-ahead at the mall just before 10 p.m. with no victim or suspect information being reported.

Initially, the authorities reported an injured person but later said that this claim “has not been founded.”

The investigation into who fired those shots continues.

Jasmine Tiana Constantine works inside the mall and said she was quick to get her employees and customers out the back door.

“One of my associates was really in a panic and said why everyone was running and my first instinct was ‘I have to evacuate the store,'” he said. “I had to quickly gather everyone because we can’t barricade our store so I had to quickly grab my keys and then open the back door and evacuate.”

People at the mall were instructed to shelter in place if they could and wait for officers to find them.

A reunification center was installed in the Home Depot parking lot, located in the 900 block of Blossom Hill Road.

Police found bullet casings but it is unclear if anyone was injured. Police obtained surveillance video but have not released it.

They say it appears to be an isolated incident and it was not an active attacker situation.

Officers kept surrounding intersections and even the freeway exits to Oakridge blocked while officers searched the interior of the mall.

“They’re being careful, going through the mall,” Camarillo said. “We hope to meet a lot of innocent people who got caught up in this mess, but they must also be very aware because there might still be an armed suspect somewhere inside this mall. We’re not going to give the go-ahead until we search every corner of this mall. “

This comes just over a month after the Great Mall in Milpitas was closed due to a report of shooting indoors. The researchers found that it was actually a fight and a loud noise that caused panic. Three teenagers were arrested.

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