DANBURY, Conn. — A teenage girl was shot at the Danbury Fair Mall on Wednesday, as police are searching for suspects.
Danbury police and Connecticut State Police both responded to the mall around 7 p.m. after receiving reports of shots fired inside the mall.
Officers found the 15-year-old was shot in the upper chest area and was conscious and alert. She was taken to Danbury Hospital and the mall was immediately put into lockdown.
Police said Thursday that the girl was transferred to Children’s Hospital in Hartford, where she is in stable condition.
Officials believe at least eight people were involved in an altercation and one person fired a gun.
Police determined the female victim was with that group. However, it is unclear at this time if she was the target.
It is believed a suspect who was carrying a hammer may have been the intended target
The suspects ran from the mall and police said they had video of the possible suspects leaving the building. Officials identified one as a dark-skinned male, possibly a teen, thin build, with shoulder length locs.
He remains at large and is urged to turn himself in.
The scene has been cleared and the lockdown was lifted. No arrests have been made in connection with the incident.
Tyreef Mahboob of Danbury was near where the shots were fired.
“I was walking into the mall from the parking lot outside of Macy’s. I had just walked into the mall, and I was, you know, looking down at my phone, texting, and I was walking out of Macy’s going into the mall entrance," Mahboob said. "I just heard a loud popping noise, so my head, right away I just jumped up and was like what the heck was that. Somebody either dropped something, or that was a gunshot.”
“I hesitated for a while, and then I just see people frantically running towards me,” he said, “So I started to back up and saw like a 16-year-old girl running past me, crying, saying her friend just got shot. Then I saw more and more people running and seeing that it’s the pandemic, people have masks on, so I didn’t know who was the shooter, so I turned around and ran out of there as well."
Mahboob added, “People were frightened, you know. They were frightened, they were running frantically. Again, the girl crying, not sure if that was her friend that got hit. People were panicking, tripping over each other. Everybody just got caught off guard.
This is a developing story.
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