Dulles Town Center mall shooting: One injured, suspect in custody
A 21-year-old man was seriously injured in a shooting just before noon Sunday at the Dulles Town Center mall in suburban Virginia, and a male suspect in his 30s was taken into custody, authorities said.
Loudoun County Sheriff Mike Chapman said the incident at the mall, in Sterling, Va., appears to have started with a dispute between the two men in the food court, and one then shot the other. The sheriff’s office was alerted at 11:57 a.m. and officers responded within three minutes, he said, encountering the victim as he was exiting a door near the Cheesecake Factory.
As emergency workers helped the victim, Chapman said, officers discovered the person believed to be the shooter — Alan W. Colie, 31, of Leesburg — sitting on the floor in the mall’s food court, near a semiautomatic handgun. The suspect did not try to flee or resist arrest, Chapman said, describing his manner as “amenable to being arrested.”
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Colie was charged Sunday with aggravated malicious wounding, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony and discharging a firearm within a building, the sheriff’s office said.
Chapman said he believed one shot was fired.
The gunman and the victim do not appear to have been acquainted before Sunday, the sheriff said. “There was a conflict between the two, and as a result of that conflict, they got into a little bit of a hands-on sort of argument there and the shooter went ahead and took a gun out and shot the victim,” he said.
Loudoun County Fire and Rescue Chief Keith Johnson said the victim was being treated for a gunshot to the abdomen. Three people were medically evaluated inside the mall — workers or visitors, he said. How many people were at the mall when the shooting took place is unclear, he said.
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The mall was evacuated and closed Sunday as police investigated.
The shooting in broad daylight in a public place evoked fears of an indiscriminate attack, and employees said they were frustrated that the shopping center had been the site of gunfire. The violence came about a week after three children and three adults were fatally shot at a private Christian school in Nashville. Chapman said that emergency responders “weren’t sure at the beginning whether it was an active shooter situation or not” and that some people hid in restrooms after the shot was fired.
“You can’t go to the mall, you can’t go to the supermarket, you can’t go to church. You can’t go anywhere nowadays,” said Mayra Rodriguez, who was working inside the mall at the time of the shooting.
Diana Zelaya, who also was at work inside the mall when the shooting began, said she heard a gunshot, but wasn’t quite sure what it was. It wasn’t until patrons rushed for the exits that she realized something was wrong.
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Among those who fled was DJ Scott, a 35-year-old father of four from Ashburn, Va., who went to the mall Sunday morning with his wife and children for the family’s annual Easter photos.
The group was walking past Macy’s at the center of the mall when he heard a faint pop, he said. He then saw streams of children and their parents sprinting toward the doors.
“We got to go, kids, we got to go,” Scott recalled saying as he grabbed his children and ran toward the parking lot.
Outside of the mall, Scott reassured his older children, 12 and 13, that law enforcement had the situation under control.
Still, he said, he has often wondered about such incidents and “when it’s going to happen here.” His family will not return to the mall for Easter photos, he said. “It was a shocking experience for everyone,” he said. “I do not think the kids will be comfortable going back anytime soon.”
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