Shooting at suburban Denver mall kills one

AURORA, COLO. >> Gunfire broke out inside a mall in a Denver suburb on Friday, killing a 17-year-old boy and causing shoppers to scatter in search of hiding places, police officials and a witness said.

Aurora Police Department spokesman Anthony Camacho said officers were looking for at least one suspect who wielded a handgun in the shooting that occurred at 4 p.m. inside a J.C. Penney store at the Town Center at Aurora mall.

Camacho said he could not immediately confirm how many people were involved in the shooting. Further details on the teenager who was killed weren’t immediately released.

It was the second shooting in the Aurora mall this month, Camacho said. A boy was injured in a Dec. 14 shooting at the mall.

In March, a 16-year-old boy was shot and killed in the mall’s parking lot.

Police also responded to a call of shots fired at the mall on Nov. 30, but found no evidence of a firearm.

Officers patrolling the mall on Friday responded to reports of gunfire inside the store and found the boy wounded, Camacho said. The teen was taken to a hospital, where he died.

Shoppers were told to shelter in place as police rushed to the scene.

A witness, Jalen Martin, told The Denver Post that he was walking in the mall when he heard a noise and saw people running.

“A few of the people who were in the cluster said, ‘He’s shooting; he’s got a gun,’” Martin said.

The mall is in the same city where a gunman opened fire in a move theater in 2012, killing 12 people and injuring dozens more.