NB: A shooting has been reported in the parking lot of Fashion Island in Newport Beach. Police said “at least 60 rounds” were fired outside the Macy’s.
The suspect was identified as 42-year-old Marcus Gurrola. Police said the man lives in his car.
Michele Gile said when Gurrola was taken into custody, he reportedly told police he “was unhappy with life.”
A call came in to 911 just after 4:30 p.m. saying a man was shooting a gun into the air.
Gile reported that the mall was packed with thousands of people at the time of the shooting. Many of them hid in dressing rooms, bathrooms and behind locked doors at various storefronts.
Kateri Wozny was at Nordstrom having a make-over when she heard the ground shake. “I saw all these people running and thought maybe some celebrity was in the back. But then I heard what sounded like a gunshot. And we all started panicking. I ran to where my car was. We were all just trying to get out of there.”
Another witness said a man was shooting wildly. “We were all so scared. Some people were crying. It felt like a horror movie.”
One person, an adult female, was reportedly injured by a crush of people trying to flee the gunman. Gile said her injuries do not appear to be serious.
Four women told Gile they saw the man, clad in a baseball cap, shoot nine times into the air. They said he paused and then shot into the air nine more times.
Gile said unconfirmed reports said the man allegedly walked into the Whole Foods and screamed out, “I am going to shoot everyone inside of here.”
Gurrola reportedly told another witness to run, “Or I’ll shoot you.”
Witness Laby Shayan saw the man holding the gun. “I thought it was a toy. Within a second he puts it in the air and starts [firing] ‘Boom, boom, boom, boom.’ And I’m saying ‘Oh my God, this is a real gun.’ And I start running.”
Another witness, Matt Lundin, told Gile the people running through the parking lot looked very scared. “I’ve never seen terror in people’s faces before. I was in the back corner of the men’s furnishings department. And all of a sudden, you know you hear regular noises, and then I heard all these abnormal noises. So I turned around to look and people were running out of the store trying to find emergency exits.”
Hanna Escatel remembered hearing lots of screaming and people pushing each other trying to get down the escalators. “They pushed us into dressing rooms and shut the security doors and then I felt safe at that moment.”
Her son Robert Escatel wasn’t so assured. “I kept thinking the guy would try to come in,” he said, “and he was going to shoot us. And I was really scared. ‘What are we going to do”?
Gurrola was booked for assault with a deadly weapon.
Fashion Island, opened in 1967, is an outdoor, three-story mall of mostly upscale stores.
