A suburban Minneapolis mall resumed normal business hours Tuesday after a fatal shooting that had earlier locked down the shopping complex.
Police responded to the Eden Prairie Center mall on Monday night and found a man dead of what they said was a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The shooting happened in the Scheels sporting goods store, which also sells firearms. Police Chief Matt Sackett said it's not clear whether the man brought a weapon to Scheels or accessed one of the store's guns.
"It’s obviously an active and fluid investigation but again, we do believe it to be an isolated incident. There is not a threat to anybody else in the public," Sackett said at a briefing.
Scheels was expected to remain closed until noon on Tuesday.
Will Dammann was shopping in Scheels when he heard an alarm sound and a commotion near a door. Seconds later a store announcement told people to evacuate immediately.
"So then it was, you know, the hustle bustle of getting out. Then everyone was just standing out in front and that’s when the police just started rolling in," Dammann said. He said people seemed calm, including store employees. He did not hear a gunshot, Minnesota Public Radio News reported.
Joel Roen of Waconia was waiting anxiously in the parking lot outside Scheels while the lockdown was in place. He said his wife, Sara, and their 15-year-old daughter had been shopping at the mall when it was locked down and they couldn't leave.
"You see this many cops here like this, you know it can’t be good," he said.
Less than three weeks ago, the Mall of America was placed on lockdown after gunfire inside that shopping center in Bloomington. No one was injured in that incident.
