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Police: Gunman dead, 2 injured in Florida mall shooting

Posted at 11:05 AM, Jan 17, 2015
and last updated 2015-01-17 13:16:08-05
By Ray Sanchez

CNN

(CNN) — One person was dead and two others injured Saturday after a shooting at a central Florida mall, Melbourne police Cmdr. Vince Pryce said.

The gunman is believed to be the lone fatality in the shooting at Melbourne Square Mall, Pryce said.

The injured were taken to a local hospital; their condition was unknown.

The “situation is contained” and the mall was closed, Pryce said.

“There’s no additional danger to the public,” he said.

The gunfire erupted around the food court early Saturday, witness Donna Evans told CNN affiliate Central Florida News 13.

“We were right there,” Evans told the station. “We were right in the line of it. God is on my shoulder, whether people believe it or not.”

Evans said she carrying a food order not far from where the shots rang out.

“It was a frightening experience,” she told the station. “It’s something that you don’t ever want anybody to experience. It was crazy. We had just gotten our food to sit down by Starbucks and Chick-fil-A and all of sudden you hear pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop.”

“You just drop everything,” she added. “Your body makes you run.”

Pryce said officers were “clearing the mall store by store.”

A caller to 911 reported the shooting at about 9:30 a.m., police said.

Five or six shots were fired, a witness told CNN affiliate WESH. The mall was closed for the day; employees were leaving through back doors.

The motive for the shooting was being investigated, police said.

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