No injuries at NC mall after police respond to holiday shoppers’ reports of shots fired
Pineville Police said Thursday night they did not find anyone injured inside Carolina Place Mall, after responding to over a dozen 911 calls reporting shots fired.
The mall near Charlotte had many last-minute shoppers on Christmas Eve.
The 911 calls began coming in around 4:50 p.m and officers arrived quickly to find many customers and employees running out of the mall, Pineville police said in a news release.
A “tactical and methodical” search of the building was conducted with the help of Charlotte-Mecklenburg police and the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office, but officers found no “evidence that any shots were fired or that there was an active shooter.”
No arrests were made, officials said early Friday.
Pineville police released a statement late Thursday saying the panic did not result in injuries among shoppers or staff. A “reunification post” was set up to reunite people separated during the incident, along with families awaiting news of loved ones working at the mall.
Pineville’s Criminal Investigation Division is conducting an investigation of the scene and interviewing mall shoppers and employees, the release said.
“Mall security video is also being reviewed as well as security video of certain stores located in the area of where the shots were heard,” police said. “We do not have a physical description of any suspect(s), however this may change once the interviews and security video is processed.”
‘All I did was run’
One witness told reporters in the parking lot of the mall afterward that she hid in a closet inside a store with fellow employees.
”They said people were shooting,” said Lachay Harvell, a Belk employee. “All I did was run.”
Harvell said she was concerned as the store employees took cover because her mother and son were on their way to the mall. Later, she said, police arrived and ushered people outside to safety.
Police from multiple neighboring jurisdictions rushed to the scene to help out.
Another witness who was in the mall described the chaotic scene as security personnel tried to get people out of the mall.
“Everyone was moving fast, moving to the door.... People running all in the parking lot,” said Aaron Harris. “It got to be a mess.”
The parking lot at Sam’s Club was used as a reunification area. Traffic around the mall was clogged around 6 p.m.
The mall is in a busy commercial area, in the town of Pineville, just south of Charlotte, near Interstate 485.
This is not the first time a local mall has dealt with reports of a shooting on Christmas Eve.
In 2015, at crowded Northlake Mall in north Charlotte, shots were fired between two groups, and an off-duty officer at the scene shot and killed one of the alleged gunmen. No charges were filed against the officer.
In January 2019, a 24-year-old Charlotte man was shot and killed at Carolina Place, following what authorities at the time described as a fight inside a store. Khali Amir Holmes died in the shooting and police arrested another man in his death but his lawyer has said he acted in self-defense.
Observer videographer Jeff Siner, reporter Mark Price and editors Adam Bell, Anna Douglas and Rogelio Aranda contributed to this report.
This story was originally published December 24, 2020 at 5:41 PM.
