RICHMOND HEIGHTS, Mo. (AP) – A teenage suspect is in custody in the fatal shooting inside a large suburban St. Louis shopping mall.
The 18-year-old suspect was arrested without incident Wednesday night, St. Louis County Police spokesman Ben Granda said. His name was not released and it wasn’t immediately clear on Thursday if charges had been filed.
The shooting happened around 12:30 p.m. Wednesday at the St. Louis Galleria in Richmond Heights. Granda said two groups of people got into an altercation that escalated into gunfire.
One man in his early 20s was killed in the shooting. A second man also was shot and is hospitalized. Police say he is expected to recover.
The shooting forced the mall to close and sent customers fleeing from the mall, one of the largest in the St. Louis region.
“We are disheartened and angered by the senseless incident that occurred in our shopping center this afternoon,” a mall spokeswoman told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in an email.
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