“You’re going to jail”: Officials issue statement as five people arrested in fatal Mall of America shooting

On Saturday, December 24, five people were arrested in connection with the shooting of a 19-year-old man who was killed Friday night inside a Nordstrom store on the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, officials said in a statement.

In a press conference, Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges said that the five suspects, identified as three 17-year-olds and two 18-year-olds, were arrested for murdering the victim at the mall of America.

Hodges purported that one of the 18-year-old was probably responsible for shooting the suspect but could not provide any additional details as the suspects were uncooperative with the investigation. Hodges encouraged people to come forward with any information and issued a warning saying, “You’re going to jail.” He said:

“We’re not playing that here. You’re going to jail. And we’re going to make sure that anybody else that helped these folks are going to go to jail, too.”

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Officials release additional details on Mall of America shooting

On Saturday, December 24, officials arrested five males in connection with a deadly shooting at the Mall of America on Friday. In a press conference, chief Hodges said a 19-year-old was found dead by an officer after he responded to gunshot sounds near Nordstrom at the mall on Friday.

Hodges said that while the suspects have not been communicative during interrogation, he was fairly certain that one of the 18-year-olds was responsible for pulling the trigger after they all got into a confrontation with the victim at the store. He said:

"We are fairly confident that we do have the person responsible for murdering the victim in custody."

Officials said after reviewing surveillance footage of the incident from the store, they believed the victim was shot after a verbal altercation between the suspect and the 19-year-old turned physical.

The chief added that all the suspects were charged with second-degree murder and asked witnesses with information to talk to the police as they tried to determine if a second shooter was involved in the incident.

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Hodges warned that anyone found aiding the suspects in the crime will be charged and face dire consequences for withholding the information. The police chief, while holding up an orange prison jumpsuit and matching orange Santa, warned:

“If you come here and murder people in our mall you get one of these at Christmas,” Five people got one of these today.”

Officials said the Mall of America was put on lockdown for an hour after the shooting. However, Nordstrom's branch where the shooting took place remained closed. In August 2022, two suspects fired three shots after getting into a dispute with people at a Nike store in the Mall of America.