A gunman shot two people dead and seriously injured another in a Portland, Oregon, mall Tuesday, sending holiday shoppers running for cover. The shooting happened around 3:20 p.m. local time (6:20 p.m. ET) in the food court near the Macy’s, triggering panic at the Clackamas Town Center. Fortunately, police agencies were able to “basically hunt down, find this guy” in record time, Sheriff Craig Roberts told NBC station KGW. Lt. James Rhodes, of the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office, said the gunman, described as an adult male, died of a self-inflicted gunshot . A young woman was wounded and was transported by ambulance to Oregon Health Science University Hospital around 5:30 p.m. (8:30 p.m. ET). The woman was described as being in “serious” condition, on a scale of “good” to “critical.” When the shooting began, people standing in line to get their photos taken with Santa immediately dove for cover, according to news reports. A woman who answered the phone at a Chipotle restaurant in the mall Tuesday told NBC News that someone ran in and yelled, “It’s a shooting, it’s a shooting.” She said employees shut the doors. She said the mall was crawling with police. Witnesses reported hearing the suspect say “I am the shooter,” before firing. “All of a sudden, I just heard a series of gunshots… boom, boom, boom, boom, boom… whatever the shooter was shooting at, they continued to shoot,” shopper Bill Hoff told KGW. Macy’s employee Mariah Saldana told KGW that she was sitting by the door “watching what was going on and then some guy just ran by in a white mask.” The man was carrying an assault rifle and “then I look out because I hear a few shots and he’s … and he’s sitting there and he’s pointing the gun at some people.” “We ran to the fitting room, grabbed some people then ran out to the back exit to get out of there.” “It was just shot after shot after shot. It was terrible. It was like a massacre.”
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Oregon Mall Shooting Leaves Two Dead, Another Injured
