UPDATE: Police says video shows shots were never fired at Hamilton Place Mall, Investigation Continues
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) – Hamilton Place Mall will reopen at Noon Sunday and Mall administration is commending Chattanooga Police’s response to the incident Saturday.
Hamilton Place will resume normal hours today. Thank you to the @ChattanoogaPD for their quick response and thorough investigation into yesterday’s incident.
— Hamilton Place (@HamiltonPlaceTN) February 25, 2018
Around 6:15 PM Saturday, Chattanooga Police say they responded to a shots fired call at Hamilton Place Mall. There were no victims found with gunshot wounds on scene or at the hospital. They also say that video shows that shots were never fired.
Witnesses told police that the suspect went back into the mall with a firearm, police are waiting to confirm this information.
CPD evacuated the mall and did a sweep of the mall “out of an abundance of caution” to “make sure [the] citizens are safe,” according Rob Simmons with Chattanooga Police Department.
Shoppers, who were inside the mall, say it was a chaotic scene.
Christy Hunt told News 12, that “we were in the food court and a bunch of people started screaming and coming at us. So we jumped up. We left our food and everything. We saw flashes of light, but it could have been anything.”
Police say there was a fight that happened outside the mall and they say witnesses told them the suspect with a gun, went inside.
“The initial incident happened right outside the mall. We are still interviewing people to find out what exactly happened inside the mall.”
Thankfully, nobody was hurt. Police say they didn’t find a gun inside the mall, but there was one found in the parking lot, near Sears.
Rob Simmons says, “logically, we would think that a gun found outside a mall right after a reported shooting would be related, so we are treating it as related right now.”
Simmons says “out of an abundance of caution, CPD evacuated the mall and are doing a sweep throughout the mall to make sure that our citizens are safe,” and they were “searching every corner to make sure a suspect isn’t hiding.”
The mall did not re-open for the night, but employees were allowed back inside to close their stores. Hamilton Place resumed normal business hours Sunday.
Police say after viewing security footage they did not find any evidence that indicated shots were fired at the mall.
However, during the middle of it all, shoppers didn’t know what to think and say that “everybody ran out and we ran with them.”
No indication that this incident was gang related.
Suspects were not located. Chattanooga Police are pulling video from all the cameras in the mall.
Police says they are looking for 1-2 suspects.
This picture is from the Game Stop in the mall.
So glad I was in a store at the time. Now that I know what happened, I’m freaked tf out. And I hadn’t been to Hamilton Place in so long. Not coming back for a while. pic.twitter.com/vHQNtr6EeK
— CurvyLettuce (@ZombieGoreBaby) February 24, 2018
Previous Story — Chattanooga Police have confirmed to News 12 shots fired at Hamilton Place Mall.
The call first came in at 6:10 p.m.
.@ChattanoogaPD confirms shots fired at the @HamiltonPlaceTN. Avoid the area!!! We have a crew on scene.
— Amber Worthy (@AWorthyNews) February 24, 2018
News 12 has crews on the way to the scene. We will update this story as soon as we have more information.
Statement from mall management. https://t.co/35HHF73zUB
— Amber Worthy (@AWorthyNews) February 24, 2018
There is no active shooter situation at this time @HamiltonPlaceTN & victim(s) have not been located. CPD received reports of Shots Fired in the parking lot. We are investigating. Update as we get more info.
— Chattanooga Police (@ChattanoogaPD) February 24, 2018
UPDATE: @ChattanoogaPD are still conducting their investigation at this time. Hamilton Place will not re-open this evening, but retailers can return to their stores to close for the evening. We will resume normal hours tomorrow.
— Hamilton Place (@HamiltonPlaceTN) February 25, 2018
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