A number of people said shots were fired at the Roosevelt Field Mall in Garden City, located on Long Island in New York, on Tuesday afternoon but it has now been reported that it was merely a loud sound that startled shoppers after a shoplifter toppled a glass display case.
The shoplifting incident created chaos at the mall, with many people believing there was a shooter inside the building, local reports said.
According to people inside who posted on Twitter, the mall was evacuated as a result, but it appears that people just ran out amid rumors of a gunman. Users on Twitter said there were shots fired and the mall was placed on lockdown.
But according to CBS, those rumors of a shooting are not true, while ABC said there was never a lockdown. CBS reported that a shoplifter knocked over a display, creating a loud sound that startled many inside, prompting an evacuation.
A shoplifter was being taken into custody by police when a display case was knocked down, which employees and shoppers mistook as gunfire.
Witnesses told NBC New York that people ran into bathrooms and locked themselves inside rooms, while some ran out of the mall.
It is unclear if there were any injuries as a result of the fracas.
Shoppers have been allowed back into the mall after the incident took place at around 1 p.m. local time, said CBS.
NBC reporter Dan Linden wrote on Twitter that Nassau Police Department officers said there were “no shots fired.” Later, ABC New York wrote on Twitter that there was a “disturbance at the Roosevelt Field Mall,” and added that the mall was not placed on lockdown. “People ran out but it was not fully evacuated,” ABC wrote.
Photos uploaded to Twitter show a number of ambulances on the scene.
Several months ago, the Roosevelt Field Mall was locked down after a man shot and killed a business associate in a nearby building, leading to a police manhunt.
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