MURRAY, Utah: A shooting at a suburban Salt Lake City mall that sent hundreds of panicked shoppers fleeing started as an argument between rival gang members inside the mall and later erupted in gunfire outside, leaving two people wounded, police said Monday.
Two 19-year-old men were arrested on suspicion of attempted aggravated murder, but investigators are not yet sure if either of them fired the shots that hit the victims, who were also involved in the fight, said Kenny Bass, a police spokesman in the Salt Lake City suburb of Murray.
Shots were fired by the both sides, and those injured were believed to be people with the gangs. No bystanders were hit or injured, Bass said.
Compounding the pandemonium, a fire alarm at the Fashion Place mall that had been malfunctioning for days went off inside the mall, sending people running for exits, Bass said.
Shoppers reported hearing the alarm after the shooting started about 1:30 p.m. and evacuation orders over a loudspeaker, while employees said they hunkered down in stockrooms and waited.
The first alarm was inadvertent and happened seconds before the shooting from the food court, triggering a subsequent message on the loudspeaker that it was false, said Lindsay Kahn, spokeswoman for Chicago-based Brookfield Properties, which owns the mall. After the shooting, a second message was played telling people to evacuate or take shelter, Kahn said in a statement.
“We recognize this created confusion and was truly an unfortunate coincidence,” Kahn said.
Kahn said the company is reviewing security measures, but declined to disclose details.
Mauricio Caballero heard the gunfire from the B’Hood clothing cart where he works and ran to find a friend before racing out of the mall. He said it was the third time in a month the fire alarm sounded randomly, but Caballero said he thinks the alarm helped people who did not hear the gunfire get to safety quickly
“The universe is taking care of us,” said Caballero, 21.
Investigators are still looking for others involved in the dispute and trying to locate more witnesses, Bass said.
The members of the rival gangs crossed paths by chance in the mall and their argument turned physical after it went outside, Bass said.
One of the two victims, a woman in her early 20s, was treated and released hours after the shooting broke out, Bass said.
A man, also in his early 20s, remained hospitalized Monday in critical condition.
The suspects were identified as Jesus J. Payan-Mendoza and Jorge Crecencio-Gonzalez. No attorney was listed in court records for either man.
Fashion Place is a popular shopping center in the heart of the Salt Lake City metro area. It was open Monday, with an increased police presence.
Shopper Sean Sasso stopped by the mall to before going to work as a pharmacy technician, saying he had heard about the shooting.
“I’m not going to live my life in fear and not come to the mall because there was a shooting yesterday,” Sasso said.
Corey Robison took his three young children to get breakfast and walk around the mall while his wife went to a doctor’s appointment nearby.
“I feel like it’s unlikely to happen ever again,” said Robison, a graphic designer from California who has lived in Utah for three years.
A 2007 shooting at a different Salt Lake City mall killed five people and wounded four others. The 18-year-old gunman was killed in a shootout with police.
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Associated Press writer Lindsay Whitehurst in Salt Lake City contributed to this report.
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This version corrects that the suspects were arrested on suspicion of attempted aggravated murder, not suspicion of aggravated murder.
Utah mall shooting that wounded 2 was gang dispute, say police
Utah mall shooting that wounded 2 was gang dispute, say police
- Shots were fired by the both sides, and those injured were believed to be people with the gangs
- Compounding the pandemonium, a fire alarm at the Fashion Place mall that had been malfunctioning for days went off inside the mall
Walz says Gaza demonstrators are protesting for ‘all the right reasons’ while condemning Hamas
- Harris’ campaign, meanwhile, has stepped up its outreach to Arab and Muslim American leaders in Michigan, aiming to make up ground with a community that had grown exasperated with Biden after they felt months of outreach had not yielded many results
WASHINGTON: Vice presidential candidate Tim Walz said Thursday that those protesting American support for Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza are doing so for “all the right reasons,” as the Democratic ticket looks to balance its support for Israel with the humanitarian plight of civilians in the war-torn enclave.
Walz’ comments came in an interview with a local Michigan public radio station — a state with a large Muslim American population that is also a potentially pivotal swing state in this November’s election. His comments appeared to mark tonal shift, though not a policy one, from the steadfast support for Israel that Vice President Kamala Harris espoused at the Democratic National Convention last month.
Walz said the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that touched off the war, was “a horrific act of violence against the people of Israel. They certainly have the right to defend themselves.” But, he also said that, “we can’t allow what’s happened in Gaza to happen. The Palestinian people have every right to life and liberty themselves.”
During the interview, Walz was also asked how a Harris administration might handle the nearly 11-month Israel-Hamas conflict and whether she would break with President Joe Biden, who has supported Israel while working to broker a ceasefire and a deal to release hostages held by Hamas.
Walz made no mention of the six hostages, including American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who were executed last week in Gaza by Hamas as Israeli forces drew near. Nor did he mention the protests that involve violence and vandalism and are frequently directed at Jewish Americans.
Harris, who has spoken more passionately of the plight of Palestinians civilians in Gaza than Biden, has pledged to continue longstanding support for Israel. In a statement after the hostages’ bodies were identified, Harris said that the “threat Hamas poses to the people of Israel— and American citizens in Israel— must be eliminated” and that “Hamas cannot control Gaza.”
Speaking at a vigil for the hostages at his synagogue in Washington on Tuesday, Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff said, “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about Hersh and his parents, or about the five others and their families.” He added: “This is hard. I feel raw. I’m gutted.”
Although the vice president has appeared more forceful in speaking about the plight of civilians in Gaza, she and Biden are in step on his efforts to arm Israel and bring about a hostage deal and ceasefire. Harris and Biden met earlier this week in the White House Situation Room with the US hostage deal negotiating team.
Harris’ campaign, meanwhile, has stepped up its outreach to Arab and Muslim American leaders in Michigan, aiming to make up ground with a community that had grown exasperated with Biden after they felt months of outreach had not yielded many results. Some have expressed a willingness to listen while others have had initial conversations with Harris’ team.
Harris previously said that it was important to remember “the war in Gaza is not a binary issue. However, too often the conversation is binary, when the reality is anything but.”
Hostage families have accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of blocking a deal and potentially sacrificing their loved ones to hold a strip along Gaza’s border with Egypt, called the Philadelphi corridor. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis this week took to the streets and called for a deal, saying time is running out to bring hostages home alive.
Biden said this week they are still negotiating.
US sees potential Iran transfer of missiles to Russia as alarming
- The potential moves come after the United States and partners, including in Europe, warned that such a step by Iran could meet with consequences
WASHINGTON: Any Iranian transfer of ballistic missiles to Russia would mark a sharp escalation in the Ukraine war, the United States said on Friday, following reports that the two countries had deepened ties in recent weeks with such an arms transfer.
Reuters reported in August that Russia was expecting the imminent delivery of hundreds of Fath-360 close-range ballistic missiles from Iran and that dozens of Russian military personnel were being trained in Iran on the satellite-guided weapons for eventual use in the war in Ukraine.
Short-range missiles have now been delivered to Russia by Iran, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing an unnamed US official.
“We have been warning of the deepening security partnership between Russia and Iran since the outset of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and are alarmed by these reports,” said White House National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett.
“Any transfer of Iranian ballistic missiles to Russia would represent a dramatic escalation in Iran’s support for Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.”
Another US official told Reuters they were watching the potential Iranian-Russian missile transfers closely.
The potential moves come after the United States and partners, including in Europe, warned that such a step by Iran could meet with consequences. The Western countries have been watching Iran and Russia’s deepening ties in recent months with increasing concern.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York said on Friday that Tehran’s position on the Ukraine conflict was unchanged.
“Iran considers the provision of military assistance to the parties engaged in the conflict — which leads to increased human casualties, destruction of infrastructure, and a distancing from ceasefire negotiations — to be inhumane,” it said.
“Thus, not only does Iran abstain from engaging in such actions itself, but it also calls upon other countries to cease the supply of weapons to the sides involved in the conflict,” the mission said.
Austrian investigators seize devices at Munich shooter’s home
- Authorities raided the gunman’s home in the Salzburg region, seizing electronic data carriers
- During the raid, “no weapons or Daesh propaganda” material were found
VIENNA: Investigators seized electronic devices at the home of a young Austrian who fired shots near Israel’s Munich consulate, but found no weapons or Daesh group propaganda material, authorities said Friday.
German police shot dead the 18-year-old man on Thursday when he fired a vintage rifle at them near the diplomatic building.
They said they were treating it as a “terrorist attack,” apparently timed to coincide with the anniversary of the killings of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games.
Authorities raided the gunman’s home in the Salzburg region, seizing electronic data carriers, Austria’s top security chief Franz Ruf told a press conference in Vienna on Friday.
During the raid, “no weapons or Daesh propaganda” material were found, Ruf added.
Despite being subject to a ban on owning and carrying weapons, the man managed to purchase a vintage carbine rifle fitted with a bayonet with around “fifty rounds of ammunition” for 400 euros ($445) the day before the attack, Ruf said.
He opened fire at around 9:00 am (0700 GMT) near the Israeli consulate, sparking a mobilization of about 500 police in downtown Munich.
At a separate press conference in Munich, prosecutor Gabriele Tilmann said investigators were combing through the gunman’s electronic data but had yet to find conclusive evidence of his motive.
But the “working hypothesis” was that “the perpetrator acted out of Islamist or anti-Semitic motivation,” she told reporters.
Austrian police said on Thursday that the gunman, who had Bosnian roots, had previously been investigated on suspicion of links to terrorism.
Investigators last year found three videos he had recorded in 2021, showing scenes from a computer game “with Islamist content,” prosecutors said in a statement.
In one of them the suspect had used an avatar with a flag of the “al-Nusra Front,” a militant group active in Syria, said Ruf.
But the investigation was dropped in 2023 as there were no indications that he was active in “radical” circles, prosecutors said.
“The mere playing of a computer game or the re-enactment of violent Islamist scenes was not sufficient to prove intent to commit the offense,” they added.
Biden to host UK PM for talks next week, says White House
- The visit comes after Biden’s July 21 decision to drop out of the 2024 US presidential election
- It was not clear if Starmer would also meet Harris on his trip to Washington
WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden will host British Prime Minister Keir Starmer for talks next week that will focus on the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, the White House said on Friday.
Starmer’s visit to the White House on September 13, his second since taking office in July, will also focus on the “special relationship” between London and Washington, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.
The visit comes after Biden’s July 21 decision to drop out of the 2024 US presidential election and pass the mantle as Democratic candidate to Vice President Kamala Harris.
It was not clear if Starmer would also meet Harris on his trip to Washington.
Biden and Starmer will discuss “continuing robust support to Ukraine in its defense against Russian aggression” and “securing a hostage release and ceasefire deal to end the war in Gaza,” said Jean-Pierre.
The US leader has been pushing for a truce to end Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip before he leaves office, but the talks brokered by the United States, Egypt and Qatar have failed to produce an accord.
Ukraine meanwhile has captured a swath of Russian territory, but Moscow has hit back with advances in Ukraine’s east.
Biden and Starmer will also discuss attacks on shipping by Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels and, in a reference to countering Chinese influence, ensuring a “free and open” Asia-Pacific region.
“President Biden will underscore the importance of continuing to strengthen the special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom,” added Jean-Pierre.
Labor leader Starmer first visited the White House on July 10, just days after his election as British Prime Minister, while attending a summit of NATO military alliance leaders in Washington.
During their meeting in the Oval Office, Biden hailed Britain as the “best of allies” while Starmer reaffirmed Britain’s support for Ukraine as it battles Russia’s invasion.
Thailand’s king swears in new government after turmoil
- Dressed in official uniform, Paetongtarn and her Cabinet ministers swore their allegiance in front of King Vajiralongkorn and Queen Suthida in a ceremony at Bangkok’s Dusit Palace
BANGKOK: Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn swore in Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and 35 Cabinet ministers in Bangkok on Friday, ushering in a new government in Southeast Asia’s second largest economy after a period of political turmoil.
Paetongtarn, 38, leader of the ruling Pheu Thai party, was elected by parliament last month to become Thailand’s youngest prime minister after her predecessor Srettha Thavisin was dismissed by a court order over an ethics violation.
The Cabinet, which was formally endorsed by the king on Wednesday, comprises 17 members from Pheu Thai, including the premier, and another 19 positions divided among coalition partners.
Dressed in official uniform, Paetongtarn and her Cabinet ministers swore their allegiance in front of King Vajiralongkorn and Queen Suthida in a ceremony at Bangkok’s Dusit Palace.
“I want to wish, with gladness, that the Cabinet will have the encouragement and determination to perform your duties as you have sworn for the benefit of the country and people,” the king said after the Cabinet’s oath of allegiance.
Paetongtarn and the Cabinet ministers bowed after the king’s remark.
The youngest daughter of the divisive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, Paetongtarn has not served in government previously and will face challenges on multiple fronts, including a floundering economy.
She is also the second woman and fourth member of the Shinawatra clan to hold Thailand’s top elected position, with three previous premiers removed by coups or court decisions.
Paetongtarn’s government will deliver its policy statement to parliament next Thursday and Friday, marking the formal start of her administration.
