Mall reopens as police probe reports of weekend gunfire

RALEIGH, N.C. -- A busy North Carolina shopping mall reopened for business Sunday as police continued investigating reports of gunfire that sent shoppers running in fear or left them hiding inside stores a day earlier.

Police said they haven't confirmed what happened but say there were no reports of people being wounded or of shell casings found inside the Crabtree Valley Mall.

Pandemonium erupted Saturday afternoon and after several shoppers said they heard what sounded like gunfire.

While some people reported seeing a gun, "no one has reported that we had a gun fired, so we are looking at all possibilities," Raleigh police chief Cassandra Deck-Brown told reporters.

Video posted on social-media sites shows dozens of people running toward mall exit doors as screams were heard. Outside the mall, where people gathered afterward, a police officer got on the loudspeaker of a fire truck and said there was no one shot in the mall. Witnesses described chaos after reports of shots.

Eight people ranging in age from 10 to 70 were transported to hospitals for treatment of injuries suffered as they rushed to leave the mall, the police chief said. None of those injuries appeared to be life-threatening.

The mall reopened at noon Sunday, said a woman who answered the phone mall office but would not provide her name.

The mall said on its website people who left personal items at the mall during the confusion Saturday could pick them up beginning Sunday.

The shopping complex in an affluent area of Raleigh was put on lockdown while helicopters buzzed overhead and law-enforcement vehicles swarmed the shopping area.

Footage from a news helicopter showed shoppers filing out of the mall with their hands over their heads as police took control of the scene.

Raleigh police said they initially responded at 2:30 p.m. to reports shots had been fired.

John Riggleman and Kristin Warring said they were heading to a video game store when they heard shots coming from the food court. They quickly ran into the store with dozens of others.

Police told them they could leave the store at about 3 p.m.

Riggleman said they were inside the video-game store for about a half-hour. When they finally were allowed to leave, they passed about 10 officers or SWAT team members moving the other way with guns drawn.