Gunfire pierced the Saturday morning bustle at the Mall in Columbia, a gathering place for many in the planned suburban community, sending shoppers racing for cover as two store employees were fatally shot by a man whom police said then killed himself.Also at Fire Andrea Mitchell, "Brianna Benlolo and Tyler Johnson dead in Mall in Columbia shooting," and "Zumiez statement on Mall in Columbia shooting."
Howard County police said the two employees at the skate shop Zumiez, Brianna Benlolo, 21, of College Park, Md., and Tyler Johnson, 25, of Ellicott City, Md. were killed shortly after 11 a.m.
Police, who did not release information on the identity of the shooter, said he was found just outside the store with a shotgun and a large amount of ammunition.
Five people, including one who was shot in the foot, were treated at Howard County General Hospital and released. The other four individuals were not being treated for gunshot wounds, but for injuries related to panic at the scene.
One witness said the gunman appeared to be between 18 and 21 years old and was wearing khaki pants and a white shirt.
"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 after 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 tried to jump over a table to grab the kids — the couple was at the mall with their three kids as well as a girlfriend of Robinson 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.
Also at CNN, "Police: No motive yet in mall shooting."
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