Shooting at Indianapolis shopping mall injures 1, prompts police to evacuate holiday shoppers

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — An 18-year-old man allegedly fired shots inside an Indianapolis shopping mall, wounding one person and prompting officers to evacuate holiday shoppers on Monday night, police said.

The suspect was arrested a few hours after the Castleton Square Mall shooting on a felony charge of intimidation with a deadly weapon, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department said. The man had not been formally charged as of Tuesday morning, according to online court records.

Police were called to the mall about 8:30 p.m. on the city’s northeast side on reports of shots fired inside. Officers evacuated shoppers from the mall during a busy shopping period two days before Christmas.

“How many families were put at risk, and how hard this is for these families, how close it is to the holidays,” Officer Tommy Thompson told reporters.

While police initially said no injuries were reported, a man who officers believe was wounded in the shooting later arrived at a hospital with injuries consistent with a gunshot wound. He was in stable condition, police said.

Police said the shooting inside one of the mall’s entrances followed a “dispute” between individuals. The shooting left behind a bullet hole in a wall and another in an arcade machine.

The mall has been the scene of several shootings in recent years, including a January 2023 shooting outside the mall that killed a teenager and wounded a man. Police later arrested a man in that shooting.