Stores at the Westfield Garden State Plaza Mall in Paramus, New Jersey were on lockdown after shots were fired inside the mall.
Over 200 law enforcement officers responded to the mall, which is about 20 miles from Manhattan.
Law enforcement officials found suspect Richard Shoop dead from self-inflicted wounds early Tuesday morning.
The mall is going to remain closed on Tuesday as officials continue an investigation into what happened.
The lockdown of the mall began shortly after shots were fired around 9:15 p.m., and continued for more than five hours. Thousands of people were gradually evacuated from the gigantic mall, which has more than 300 stores and is 2.2 million square feet.
SWAT teams were focusing their search in the northeast corner, near a Nordstrom store, where the shots are believed to have been fired.
Robert Dowd, chief of the North Bergen Police Department, said via Twitter: “It’s probably going to take all night for teams to clear that scene. Then comes the massive job if the crime scene investigation.”
Paramus Police Chief Kenneth Ehrenberg said in a statement that “several shots” were fired.
A witness told the New Jersey Record that the gunman fired at least five shots as he was “strutting by.”
Numerous other witnesses reported hearing multiple shots. Some said the gunman was shooting at security cameras. There were no reported injuries, and no weapon has been recovered.
“He was fully armored head to toe, like he planned this. Like it’s not like a random thing,” a male shopper who did not want to give his name told NBC.
Christine Fudali, who works at Inglot, said that her manager saw the gunman walk by.
“She said he was dressed like robo cop minus the muscles,” Fudali said via Twitter. Police officers came and got all the employees out safely from the bathroom at the back of the store, where they were hiding.
Ally Kozic, a mall employee, told CNN that she saw “someone dressed in all black, carrying a large gun, walk past our store.”
Clarice Forbes, a Talbots employee, described to NBC what she saw. “When he walked past our store, he looked directly in the store and strolled past,” she said. “It was very, very terrifying.”
A police source told Fox that police believe the gunman was targeting a person who was not at the mall.
Story developing; check back for updates
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
