By Zaeem Shaikh, Tyler J. Davis, Hojun Choi and Jamie Landers
ARLINGTON — Two people were wounded in a shooting Thursday night in The Parks Mall at Arlington, police said.
Sgt. Courtney White, an Arlington police spokeswoman, said shots rang about 7:30 p.m. The gunfire followed a fight between two groups of people on an escalator between Dick’s Sporting Goods and the skating rink.
Mall security and Arlington police “immediately” put the mall on lockdown, White said, and were able to safely evacuate everyone inside.
The mall — which houses over 50 businesses, including an AMC Theater and Dillard’s — is located on the city’s south side, near Interstate 20.
White said both victims suffered non-life-threatening injuries. As of 10:30 p.m., detectives were working to confirm if the people shot were involved in the fight, or if they were bystanders.
”Firearms are deadly … and we could have very well been arriving to a murder,” she said. “We want to remind people: Please do not take firearms where they are prohibited.”
White said the shooter fled from the mall on foot. The department did not have a description Thursday evening.
Arlington police said about 8:50 p.m. in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that officers were investigating a reported shooting at The Parks Mall, which is located in the 3800 block of South Cooper Street. Social media posts showed people “on lockdown” inside the mall.
According to a 9:20 p.m. post from police, the mall was evacuated and officers were securing the building. Police added the shooting was not an active shooter situation.
Hundreds were seen leaving the area as police and emergency responders arrived at the scene. One social media video appeared to show a person being led away on a stretcher.
The first set of people were evacuated near the movie theater and people as of 8:45 p.m. were being let out of other stores.
Camila Labastida, 13, said she was in line at the mall’s Starbucks when she heard a loud “bang.”
”We thought maybe it was a hockey stick breaking because there was a hockey game going on inside,” she said.
Before she had a chance to process the noise, Labastida said the mall became “chaotic” as dozens of people around her started running in all directions — some of them yelling “active shooter” and “take shelter.”
More than 20 emergency response vehicles were seen near the mall.
Alina Manjiyani, 28, of Lewisville, said she was working her shift at a jewelry store inside the mall when, at about 7:45 p.m., she heard a series of “bangs” coming from toward the mall’s ice rink and food court.
Arlington police say two people were shot and taken to a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries after a fight between two groups inside the mall. (Elías Valverde II / Staff Photographer)
”I heard a noise and I looked outside [the store] because I thought it was kind of weird, and then I heard two more loud bangs and then I saw people running,” she said.
Manjiyani said the store allowed people who wanted to hide inside.
”We closed our shutters to our location all the way,” Manjiyani said, adding that about 20 people hid inside the location.
After about 10 minutes, Manjiyani said she looked through the closed shutters of the business and saw people who appeared to be shoppers “casually walking” toward the mall exit. She said she called her boyfriend, who was at a different part of the mall, and was told people were allowed to leave the mall.
She said she opened the shutters to the store and saw two people who looked to be law enforcement with “big guns.”
“I asked them, ‘Can we leave?’ and he was like, ‘Yeah, tell everyone to evacuate the building,’” Manjiyani said.
Arlington, a city of 400,000, is about 20 miles west of downtown Dallas, near Fort Worth.
A group of about 25 students and adult leaders from Calvary Baptist Church, located in Snyder, were at The Parks Mall as part of a winter retreat in the Metroplex.
Matt Lowry, lead pastor for the church, said a little after 8 p.m. he received a call from their youth pastor about the shooting. Lowry’s daughter, Zalee, was at an arcade in the mall, while others were spread out in different places when it unfolded, he said.
A couple heard multiple gunshots and saw flashes in the area. A majority of the group was escorted by security out of the mall almost immediately while about three went into stores to shelter in place, Lowry said.
They were eventually reunited with the group. ”We’re extremely thankful and blessed for the Lord’s protection,” Lowry said.
The mall has long been one of the area’s most profitable and is owned by one of the country’s largest mall operators. Police in early 2022 responded to several calls, including two large fights, at the complex, leading to a curfew being implemented on certain days.
This story, originally published in The Dallas Morning News, is reprinted as part of a collaborative partnership between The Dallas Morning News and Texas Metro News. The partnership seeks to boost coverage of Dallas’ communities of color, particularly in southern Dallas.
