BALTIMORE - Three people were killed and five were injured during a shooting shortly after 11 a.m. Saturday on the second floor of a crowded mall in Columbia, according to Howard County, Md., police.
Police were still trying to determine the identity and motive of the gunman who killed a man and a woman, both in their 20s, at a skate shop called Zumiez on the upper level of the Mall in Columbia.
Howard County Police Chief William McMahon said at a news conference that authorities had difficulty identifying the gunman because of concerns he might be carrying explosives and were proceeding with an “abundance of caution.”
Police said they disabled crude attempts at explosive devices found in the gunman’s bag.
Someone called 911 about 11:15 a.m. to report the shooting. Police responded to the scene within two minutes and found three people dead - including the apparent gunman, lying near a shotgun and ammunition - either inside or outside the shop, which sells skateboards, clothing and accessories.
Police identified the victims as 21-year-old Brianna Benlolo of College Park, Md., and 25-year-old Tyler Johnson of Ellicott City, Md. Both worked at Zumiez.
Benlolo’s grandfather, John Feins, said in a telephone interview from Florida that his granddaughter had a 2-year old son and that the job at Zumiez was her first since she went back to work after her son’s birth.
He described his daughter’s family as a military family that moved frequently and had been in Colorado before moving to Maryland about two years ago.
“I mean what can you say? You go to work and make a dollar and you got some idiot coming in and blowing people away,” he said.
Zumiez CEO Rick Brooks released a statement saying the company was making counseling available for employees in the area.
“The Zumiez team is a tight knit community and all of our hearts go out to Brianna and Tyler’s families,” he wrote.
Howard County General Hospital said it had treated and released five patients. One patient had a gunshot wound, while at least three other patients suffered other injuries.
One witness, who said the gunman appeared to be between 18 and 21 years old and was wearing khaki pants and a white shirt, said he turned toward her when someone she was with yelled.
“He looked straight at me. … He pointed the gun at me and looked at my eyes,” said Shafon Robinson, who had run out from a bathroom near the first-floor food court when she heard two gunshots coming from Zumiez on the second floor.
Robinson’s husband, Terrance Lilly, screamed at her to get down, and when she did, she said a shot sailed over her head and into the wall behind her. Two shots were fired in her direction, she said. Her husband then tried to jump over a table to grab the children - the couple were at the mall with their three children as well as Robinson’s friend and her two children - and herd them outside to safety.
“He saved the kids,” she said, but broke three bones in his face as he tried to leap over the table.
Lauryn Stapleton, 18, of Columbia, who was close to the shooting, said she was standing in the food court when it sounded as though someone had dropped a brick from the upper level to the food court.
“And then I heard [someone yell] ‘Shots fired.’ … It sounded like a popping noise, like something hitting metal really hard. It sounded like a brick sound. It just kept going and going and going,” Stapleton said.
“My instinct was to grab the kid next to me whose mother had a lot of stuff in her hands and I ran into Sears. All I saw was three people fall to the ground. I didn’t know what they looked like or anything. All I saw is that they fell. I thought they were the ones to get shot. When I got to Sears I alerted everybody what was going on, and they shut down the store.”
Police later reported that they had secured the area. “We are confident it was a single shooter,” said McMahon.
McMahon said that SWAT teams were going through the mall to find people who had “sheltered in place” and escort them out.
McMahon said he could not confirm any motive for the shooting.
He also said it wasn’t clear whether the gunman and victims knew each other. He said officers did not fire any shots when they arrived at the scene. Asked if the gunman shot himself, the chief answered: “That is certainly what it appears to be at this point.”
Stapleton’s mother, Robin, had just dropped her daughter at the mall when she received a frantic call from her as she was barricaded inside.
“When you first hear it, it’s like you’ve lost your child,” Robin Stapleton said. “She was talking to me, but you’re fearful. You don’t know what’s going on, and she didn’t know where the shooter was.
“Once I saw her we cried on each other’s shoulders and we didn’t let go,” the elder Stapleton said.
Many customers inside the mall were directed toward the AMC Theater, away from the scene of the shooting. Some were loaded onto buses.
The Police Department was advising people to avoid the area.
The mall was closed to the public as police looked in each store for people who might still be hiding, McMahon said. It was to remain closed at least through the night.
There was a heavy police presence at the mall, with helicopters circling overhead and police officers searching car trunks in the parking lot.
Information for this article was contributed by Carrie Wells, Alison Knezevich, Liz Bowie, Justin Fenton and Eduardo A. Encina of The Baltimore Sun and by Eric Tucker, Jessica Gresko and Martin Di Caro of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 5 on 01/26/2014