Oakwood Center Mall: Shooting in Gretna, Louisiana Mall on Christmas Eve; 1 Dead

Police on Wednesday are responding to a shooting inside the Oakwood Center Mall in Gretna, Jefferson Parish, Louisiana--located near New Orleans--on Wednesday.
Oakwood Center Mall: Shooting in Gretna, Louisiana Mall on Christmas Eve; 1 Dead
Jack Phillips
12/24/2014
Updated:
7/18/2015

Police on Wednesday are responding to a shooting inside the Oakwood Center Mall in Gretna, Jefferson Parish, Louisiana--located near New Orleans--on Wednesday.

One person was shot and killed inside the mall just before 4:30 p.m. local time. A suspect was arrested, according to a report from WDSU-TV.

Police are currently on the scene, and the mall was locked down.

One witness told a local station, FOX-8, that they heard at least three gunshots.


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AP US update: Mississippi towns regroup after deadly storms

COLUMBIA, Miss. (AP) — Elizabeth Bordelon planned to go Christmas shopping until nasty weather blowing through southeastern Mississippi convinced her to hold off.

By the time she returned Tuesday to her Columbia trailer park she had called home for only a short time, a neighbor’s mobile home had flipped onto her grandmother’s, trapping her and Bordelon’s aunt. She said her grandmother, 73-year-old Maryjean Sartin, was killed. She was one of four killed in Columbia and Laurel by likely tornadoes that tore through the communities.

“I had left the house to go pick up a friend to go to Hattiesburg and do some Christmas shopping,” said Bordelon, whose sons are 6 and 4. “But the weather turned so bad that we decided to wait. By the time I got home, I'd rounded the corner and then saw all the damage.”

Bordelon, 26, said the wind from the storm apparently blew under the neighbor’s trailer and flipped it. Bordelon said her aunt was hospitalized.

Although she identified her grandmother, authorities have not released the names of the victims.

Chasity Magee, 32, owned the trailer that flipped onto Sartin’s home. She said she and her two children were at her mother’s home about a mile away when the storm raged.

“I saw pictures of the trailer park, but it didn’t register to me that that was my trailer (that flipped),” Magee said.

She said when she returned Wednesday, she learned of Sartin’s death. She managed to climb through what was a window to retrieve some personal items but that was about it.

“I couldn’t salvage Christmas for them,” she said of her 7-year-old and 5-month-old children, “but we‘ll be fine. We’ll all be OK.”

The destructive system damaged communities from Mississippi to Georgia and was making its way off the Eastern coast. Flood warnings were issued for several counties in Alabama, Georgia, Florida and Louisiana.

Jack Phillips is a breaking news reporter with 15 years experience who started as a local New York City reporter. Having joined The Epoch Times' news team in 2009, Jack was born and raised near Modesto in California's Central Valley. Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/jackphillips5
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