Investigators believe one shot was fired, according to a police spokeswoman. “There are no indications that anyone else was in danger,” she said.
Police “worked to evacuate people in an orderly fashion and the mall was fully cleared by 9:00 p.m.,” officials said in a statement Sunday.
Some witnesses told of their experiences on X.
“Scariest moment of my life in the US,” wrote one person who was ordering at a restaurant and said there was a “loud bang and we all ran.”
Another witness wrote: “Me and my best friend were in the food court when we heard a loud pop … I never ran that fast in my life!”
Another posting reported that “my dad was in a mall today with a shooter who killed someone and he was running for his life.”
A mall shopper offered “a shout out to the gracious employees” at the Sephora store who handed out snacks and water to customers “evacuated to the backroom.”
In January 2014, the same mall was the scene of three shooting deaths when a man with a shotgun killed two people and then himself.
The mall is about 25 miles northeast of Washington.