Milwaukee shooting: Police responding to 'very active situation' at US shopping mall

[Saj]

Police are responding to a "very active situation" amid reports of a series of shootings at a shopping mall in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Reports suggest a number of people have been injured in the incident at Mayfair Mall in Wauwatosa.

Photos show a heavy armed police presence at the scene.

Members of the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Wauwatosa Police, Wisconsin National Guard and other departments have responded.

Dennis McBride, the mayor of Wauwatosa, said none of those injured appeared to have life-threatening injuries.

The mall was the site of a February shooting in which a police officer, Joseph Mensah, shot and killed Alvin Cole, a black 17-year-old.

Officers claimed Cole was fleeing from police. Mensah, who is also black, said he shot Cole because Cole pointed a gun at him.

The mall has been the target of sporadic protests over several months in the wake of the shooting.

 

[The Viper]

Multiple people wounded in active shooting at mall near Milwaukee

An "active shooting incident" erupted at a mall near Milwaukee Friday, leaving multiple people wounded, said Wauwatosa Mayor Dennis McBride.

"Multiple injured victims have and are being transported from the north end of the Macy's department store," McBride told CNN. "None of the victims' injuries appear to be life threatening."

The mayor said "the perpetrator is at-large at this time" and about 75 police officers were on scene at Mayfair Mall one week before the start of the busy holiday season.

'It will take time to provide additional, and perhaps, more accurate information," McBride said.
The FBI in Milwaukee tweeted that agents were "currently responding to support local law enforcement tactical response to Mayfair Mall shooting incident."

A heavy police and EMT presence responded, according to footage from CNN affiliate WISN.
Police officers in tactical gear were seen entering the mall, and at least five people were carried on stretchers to ambulances, WISN reported.

Austin Seybold, 24, said he was locked down in the back room of the Finish Line store inside the mall. Seybold saw customers running past the store. Employees starting rounding up the people inside the store and "took them into the back and locked our front gate," Seybold wrote to CNN via text message from the store.

Seybold said six employees and about a dozen customers were locked in the back room for about two hours before a SWAT team escorted them out.

"It was a little frantic at first, but we managed to get everyone into the back without any hassle and everyone has remained fairly calm which is good, although we can hear what sounds like SWAT teams in the back passageways of the mall and the gravity of the situation is beginning to set in," he wrote.

Mayfair Mall posted on Facebook Friday that it was closed following the shooting.

"We are disheartened and angered that our guests and tenants were subject to this violent incident today. We are thankful for our partners at the Wauwatosa Police Department and we are cooperating with them as their investigation develops," the post read.

Wauwatosa is about seven miles northwest of Milwaukee.

The city was the site of multiple protests in October following news that Officer Joseph Mensah, who shot and killed 17-year-old Alvin Cole outside Mayfair Mall in February, would not face criminal charges.

The decision not to charge Mensah sparked protests during a monthslong wave of nationwide demonstrations over how police treat Black people.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/20/us/wisconsin-wauwatosa-mayfair-mall-shooting/index.html

 

[Firebat]

Gun violence in the US? Who would've thought

 

[Saj]

Will the gun laws ever change in the USA?

I wonder if Biden will look into this during as tenure as President.