PORTLAND -- A young man was arrested for attempted murder and another teen accused of trying to start a riot after gunfire erupted inside the busy Lloyd Center Mall Wednesday night, police said.
A fight between rival gang members broke out around 6:30 p.m. and escalated into gunfire, police said, while the mall was packed with Spring Break shoppers. No one was injured but people inside the mall said it was a terrifying ordeal.
"Definitely a real gun," said eyewitness Steve Flakus. "(He) fired three rounds, one at the guy he had an altercation with, then two into the crowd of people I was looking at shoes with."
Officers just happened to be very close by and quickly swarmed the mall. They broke up the fight and found two handguns. "Officers determined that a 19-year-old male subject was targeted by the shooter and that multiple gunshots had been fired. The Gang Enforcement Team was already on scene and began investigating this incident as gang-related," explained detective Mary Wheat, a spokeswoman for the Portland Police Bureau.
"It was pretty wild," said John Rodriguez, who works inside the mall. "I was terrified for my life."
"I hate to say that I'm not surprised, but I'm not surprised," Tonya Dickens with the gang outreach program Brother’s and Sister’s Keepers, said. "I'm not surprised because there are so many kids out, so many young people out doing absolutely nothing, just hanging out and you get groups of people together and you never know what's going to happen. It's sometimes almost scary to know that you have young people hanging out without any supervision."
Three people were taken into police custody for questioning, according to Wheat. She said police later arrested a 17-year-old man on one court of attempted murder and a 16-year-old boy on one count of riot. Names have not been released since both suspects are minors.
"In the gang world if it is a beef between two rival sects than it does heighten our concern because sometimes there isn't a resolve until we have the loss of life," Lt. Kevin Modica said.
(KGW Reporters Mike Benner, Amanda Burden and Scott Burton contributed to this report)
