BLOOMINGTON, Minn. – A fatal shooting at a Mall America department store was recorded on surveillance video, Police Chef Booker Hodges said. At a news conference Hodges said there appeared to be some type of altercation between two groups that all together were nine. Shouting escalated into a fistfight, then someone pulled a gun and fired several shots, the chief said. A second man may also have fired a weapon, he said. This all was in no more than 30 seconds. Hodges said the shooter was among five men arrested 12 later at a house in the west Minneapolis suburb of St. Louis Park. Others were ben sought, Hodges said. He said violence would not be tolerated: “In Bloomington, if you come here and murder people at our mall, you get one of these at at Christmas” He waved an orange prison suit at reporters at the news conference. Hodges said there remained answered questions: “We don’t know why this happened. These people flat out are just not cooperating. And people don’t want to talk.”
Hodges. Bloomington police chief since February.
Verbatim
Hodges, police chief: “Whoever did this, we will catch them. And whoever helps them, we will lock you up too. This is just stupid, stupid, stupid.”