Police Provide Update on Eden Prairie Shopping Mall Shooting
Eden Prairie, MN (KROC-AM News) - Police in Eden Prairie say the young man who prompted a lockdown of a shopping mall last night by taking his own life used a gun he obtained from the store where the fatal shooting took place.
A news release says the investigation into the death of the 19-year-old man found that he asked an employee of the Scheels store at Eden Prairie Center if he could view a semi-automatic handgun in the store's firearms department. The employee handed the unloaded gun to the man, who then took off running toward an archery area of the store while loading the handgun.
Once he managed to load the weapon, the young man fired a single shot and ended his own life. Preliminary information indicates he likely brought his own ammunition with him into the store.
The deadly incident prompted an evacuation of the store and a lockdown of the entire shopping complex because Eden Prairie police were initially unsure whether it was a suicide or if a shooter was at large inside the mall. The shopping center reopened today.