Authorities are looking for the suspects who set fire to a mall in Nebraska on Saturday and injured two people, one of whom is critical.
Officers walked through the Westroads Mall in an attempt to track down the suspects Saturday afternoon. However, they “fled the scene and are free,” the Omaha police station tweeted.
Omaha police lieutenant Neal Bonacci described one of the victims as a man and a ‘trauma candidate’. The other victim, according to him, is a woman in her early twenties who did not sustain life-threatening injuries.
The shooting took place outside a JCPenney inside the mall, he said during a news conference outside the mall.
“This is not an active shooting incident,” Bonacci said. “It seemed a bit isolated.”
Following the gunfire, some shopping was locked in stores as a precautionary measure before police arrived, the spokesman said. The mall said on its website that it was closed for the rest of the day.
The University of Nebraska, Omaha Department of Public Safety, said in a notice to the campus community that the shooting took place at noon. The school is about a mile from the mall.
Students were encouraged to stay away from the mall.
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives tweeted that his agents would go to the mall to help with the investigation.
An Omaha police officer was shot and injured at the same JCPenney in Westroads last month after responding to a shoplifting report.
“It’s a coincidence that two incidents happened so close to each other,” Bonacci said Saturday. “Omaha is a very safe place.”
Critics of Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts have said on social media that he draws a symbolic proclamation earlier this week Nebraska designated a pro-gun “Second Amendment Sanctuary State.”
The governors’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Josh Cradduck and Cristian Santana contributed.