About three hours north of Portland was a scene we are seeing too often. One person was shot near the food court of the Tacoma Mall just after 7 p.m. Friday. The male who was shot is in serious, but stable condition at a local hospital, police said. Tacoma Mall called out on radio that they heard shots fired inside the building near the food court. The sheriff’s department said it was not an active shooter situation.
Tacoma Police Officer Gary Wurges said a fight in the Tacoma Mall food court escalated into gunfire. There are no suspects in custody. The shots were heard at Kizuki Ramen – a nearby restaurant in the mall. More than 60 Pierce County deputies responded to the scene, along with units from Tacoma, Lakewood, Ruston, Puyallup, and Sumner police departments, transit police and the Washington State Patrol.
Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards and Deputy Mayor Keith Blocker shared the following statement Friday night: “We want to acknowledge the magnitude of this event that occurred this evening and thank our first responders for swiftly responding to the scene. We are grateful to our local law enforcement partners who responded to the call with us today. While there are not a lot of details available at this time, we believe this to be an isolated event and the Tacoma Police Department is hard at work, conducting a full investigation. Because the impacts of gun violence ripple out community-wide, we continue to place high priority on public safety. As we learn more, we stand with everyone impacted by this event – we are stronger together.”
Officers secured the mall after a secondary sweep revealed there was no active threat to the public.
