Tweet
Authorities are holding a 3 p.m. press briefing ***
Police are responding to a call of shots fired at New River Valley Mall.
Sergio Pollock, who was inside the mall using a community computer, said he saw a man with a gun walk into the lobby of the New River Community College campus inside the mall. He pointed the gun at a woman, Pollock said.
Pollock ran and didn’t see shots fired, but numerous people who were inside the mall at the time said they heard three shots.
At least one person was flown out on LifeGuard 10. The person was on a stretcher, with a breathing apparatus.
Taylor Leitch, an English student at the New River Community College campus inside the mall, said the class heard a noise that they initially thought was a door slamming. When it happened again, she said, they realized it was gunshots. The teacher told them to run, and the students all fled into the mall parking lot.
Leitch said it wasn’t clear where the shots were coming from.
Shortly after 2 p.m., police were still approaching the mall, armed with rifles and other weapons, and someone has just been wheeled out on a stretcher.
A man was in handcuffs on the back of a sheriff’s office car in the mall parking lot. He was taken away, but it’s not clear who he was.
People were continuing to leave the mall with their hands above their heads as authorities are continuing to evacuate the building. Bystanders were being pushed back from the mall by police, who told them it was a safety issue.
Josh Brown from Dublin, a student at NRCC, said he was working on a computer near the classrooms when the shots were fired. “I heard one gunshot, and I didn’t know what it was,” he said. “I saw people running out.”
He got up and ran out. “I’ll be scared to come back to school,” he said, and started to cry. “What’s wrong with people? Who would do something like this?”
Ben Kramer, an activities counselor for the community college, said he was in a meeting and saw a student run. He learned that someone was shooting inside, then saw someone carrying a shotgun, roaming the main hall of the campus, about 50 feet away. He said he locked the classroom door and then went out the back.
Friday isn’t usually a busy day at the school’s mall campus, he said. Enrollment is roughly 1,500, and about a third of those students likely were on campus today, he said.
Joe and Judy Flickinger of Radford were having lunch in the food court by the classrooms. They had just found seats when they heard several bangs, then saw students coming out of the college.
“We had just sat down,” Judy Flickinger said. “We just heard bangs and we thought we should move.”
All Blacksburg Transit routes servicing the New River Valley Mall area are using a detour, according to the Town of Blacksburg Twitter account. The Two-Town Trolley, Explorer and Go Anywhere routes are affected. Information is available at 540-961-1185.
Radford Transit will not be servicing the New River Valley Mall because of the shooting, according to its Twitter feed
From Montgomery County Public Schools spokeswoman Brenda Drake:
“All Christiansburg schools were on lockdown. The schools are now on high alert. High schools will be released on schedule and students are being asked not to go to the mall.”
</
Comment