Police: 13-Year-Old Girl Killed in Mall Shooting in North Carolina, 2 Others Injured

Police car. (Nick Starichenko/Shutterstock)

A 13-year-old girl has been killed during a shooting in the parking lot of Dave and Busters at Concord Mills mall in North Carolina on Saturday evening, officials said.

Concord Police were called to the incident outside the sports bar at around 8:41 p.m. after receiving a call concerning a fight in the parking lot and determined that a shooting had occurred.

The unnamed girl was pronounced dead, while two others, both under the age of 16, were injured in the attack and have been transported to a local hospital.

Both are in a stable condition after suffering non-life-threatening injuries, police added.

Officials stressed that it was not an active shooter situation but said they are remaining at the scene and are working on identifying a suspect and speaking to witnesses.

They urged people to avoid the mall while they investigate.

It is not known if the victims had attended the mall together at the time of the incident and police said it’s possible the victims were simply “in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

On Twitter, Concord police said they have set up an area in the parking lot of Sea Life Aquarium for parents to come and pick up their children, but that they must enter through the Carolina Lilly entrance as all other entrances remained closed.

Evelyn Romero, who was inside the mall at the time of the shooting, told WBTV that the scene had been frantic.

“It was just a lot of chaos and people running everywhere and I was kind of like, ‘Oh, it could have been us,’” she said.

Sean King, who was also inside the mall at the time the incident occurred, said he believed a fight had broken out before the shooting.

“People came running. I thought it was a fight, apparently gun shots, because there’s two bodies over there on the ground and a mother can’t have her daughter tonight. I saw the girl’s momma on the wall so I knew it was serious,” he said.

In a press conference, police said they are still investigating whether the shooting is related to an earlier incident which took place at 5:51 p.m. at Lincoln Street and Polk Avenue when a 31-year-old man was shot and killed.

“We are investigating the possibility that the two events are related, we cannot eliminate the fact that they were or confirm that they weren’t at this point in time,” they said.

The victim, who has been identified as Derron Jordan, was fired at multiple times, they added.

Police are asking anyone with information to contact the Concord police department or Cabarrus Crime Stoppers.

North Carolina has seen a number of shootings over the Christmas period, including a Christmas Eve drive-by attack outside a strip mall.

Six men were rushed to hospital after a passing vehicle opened fire on a group of people gathered in a parking lot outside the mall in High Point, N.C., however they are now in a stable condition, The Hill reports.

In a separate incident the night before, 27-year-old Kalon Ewing died after being shot in the stomach at High Point, while another person was left injured.

Meanwhile, an 18-year-old who police identified as Austin Shoa, was killed in a third shooting on Christmas eve on Eskdale Drive in High Point, Fox reports.