Bloomington police: 2 fugitives sought in MOA shooting arrested in Chicago
Two Twin Cities men who had been on the run for a week after a shooting at the Mall of America were arrested Thursday afternoon in Chicago on the day the shopping center celebrated its 30th anniversary, authorities said.
After a nationwide manhunt stemming from the Aug. 4 shooting at the mall, at 2:30 p.m. Thursday an FBI task force in Chicago arrested Shamar Alon Ramon Lark, 21, of Minneapolis, and Rashad Jamal May, 23, of Burnsville.
“Growing up we were taught if you do the crime, you do the time,” Bloomington Police Chief Booker T. Hodges said at a Thursday evening press conference. “In some ways that has shifted to: You do the crime, you do another crime, you do another crime, you do another and don’t do the time. We’re not doing anyone any favors by not holding people accountable.”
A criminal complaint gives the following details of the shooting:
Shortly before 4:15 p.m. last Thursday, a fight broke out between six people at the cash register at the Nike store in the northwest corner of the mall’s second level, causing other customers to run. After Lark and May left the store, they returned and Lark shot into the store, which still had customers inside, including children. No one was injured.
The suspects ran through the mall and out into the Ikea parking lot, where they were picked up by a Best Western hotel shuttle and taken to the hotel just south of the mall. The shopping center was locked down for 90 minutes and closed for the rest of the evening.
In addition to the arrests Thursday, three employees of the hotel — Denesh Raghubir, 21, of Burnsville; Selena Raghubir, 23, of Burnsville; and Delyanie Arnold, 23, of Minneapolis — were all arrested and charged Monday with aiding an offender to avoid arrest, authorities said.
While the shooting “traumatized a lot of people” Hodges said, it ended well because no one was hurt.
Hodges said he hopes that after Lark and May are held accountable, they seek help to “turn their life around.”
He also warned that the investigation was not yet over: “Anybody who helped them and we find that out — we’re going to lock them up, too.”
Lark and May were arrested without incident during a traffic stop after they were seen leaving a barbershop and then getting into a vehicle driven by a woman.
Hodges said a handgun was found in the vehicle, but it was unclear whether it was the weapon fired at the mall.
The two men were booked into the Cook County jail to await extradition proceedings.
Lark was charged Monday with second-degree felony assault with a dangerous weapon; felony intentionally discharging a firearm endangering the safety of others; and felony carrying a pistol in a public place without a permit.
May was charged with felony aiding an offender to avoid arrest in helping Lark.
Lark was convicted in April of a gross misdemeanor after having a pistol in public without a permit, court records show.
The Mall of America, which opened on Aug. 11, 1992, bans guns on its premises. The shopping center — the largest in the United States — does not have metal detectors and shoppers are not searched upon entry.
The mall was the scene of a shooting on New Year’s Eve, when two people were wounded during an altercation.
In March, an 18-year-old St. Paul man was sentenced to nearly four years in prison for the shooting, which prompted a 45-minute lockdown and led to the cancellation of a New Year’s celebration.
