Two 18-year-olds and another man face several charges after a shooting at Manassas Mall in Virginia on Tuesday afternoon injured two and sent shoppers running for cover, police said.
One of the people charged and a bystander were injured when gunfire broke out in the parking lot after a fight inside the mall’s food court, according to Prince William County police. Both injured people are expected to survive.
Daevon Russell and Joshuah Minas Hernandez, both 18 and from Manassas, are charged with two counts of malicious wounding, shooting at an occupied building and other firearm charges, police announced Wednesday.
Skyler James Agley, 23, of Manassas, was charged with one count of malicious wounding, shooting at an occupied building, willfully discharging a gun in public and using a firearm during a felony.
‘Running and screaming’: Shoppers hid after hearing gunshots
Police said that multiple firearms were brandished as two groups got into a fight in the mall’s food court.
The fight spilled out into the mall’s parking lot, then the two groups started shooting, police said.
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A 51-year-old man who was not involved with the fight was hit in the upper body and taken to a hospital, police said.
Agley, one of the suspects, was shot and driven to a hospital by people he knew after the shooting, police said. He remains in the hospital but in police custody, police said.
Customers in the food court described hearing gunshots before seeing people running.
“All of a sudden, everyone from the food court was running and screaming, and then we just heard five gunshots,” said Doris Morales, who was at the mall with her two daughters. “And then I just pushed my girls inside the Victoria’s Secret.”
One customer said they didn’t hear the shots but told News4 they were in a store when the gate lowered and customers were told to move to the back and take cover.
No shots were fired inside the mall, police said.
Police responded shortly after 2 p.m. Officers searched the area with K-9 dogs and found multiple firearms, according to police. Multiple police agencies and a Fairfax County police helicopter responded.
Police initially detained Russell and Minas Hernandez during a traffic stop shortly after the shooting.
Prince William Police are still looking for other suspects involved and ask anyone with information to contact them.
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