Florida mall shooting leaves 1 dead, 1 injured; third shooting in Ocala in 24 hours
A man died and a woman was injured in a shooting at an Ocala, Florida shopping mall on Saturday, the third shooting incident in the city in less than 24 hours.
Law enforcement officers rushed to the Paddock Mall around 4 p.m. on Saturday. But by the time they arrived, the shooter had already fled the scene.
Both victims have yet to be identified.
The man is believed to have been the shooter’s intended target, they added. Several other minor injuries were reported in the panic afterward as shoppers tried to flee the mall.
On Friday night, two separate shootings were reported in the central Florida town, about an hour apart.
One man suffered non-life-threatening injuries from a shooting around 7:15 p.m. in the 2000 block of SW 4th Street, and another shooting around 8:20 p.m. in the 1900 block of SW 1st Street, left a man dead with multiple gunshot wounds.
Authorities said “it is not clear” whether the two shootings are related, and both remain under investigation.
