Officers were sent to Crossroads Mall in St. Cloud, Minnesota, on a report of a stabbing Saturday night, according to St. Cloud police.
It happened just after 8 p.m. There are multiple victims with stab wounds, police said. All victims were transported to the St. Cloud Hospital to be treated.
The suspect is dead at the scene and the mall is still in lockdown, according to St. Cloud police. Officers are conducting a security sweep and speaking to witnesses.
Ashley Bayne works at the J.C. Penney store in the mall. She was off Saturday night, but was visiting a friend at the store when the incident took place.
WCCO’s Liz Collin spoke with her on the phone.
“I went closer to the mall entrance by J.C. Penney’s and I was looking at some jeans and all the sudden people were just running in chaos,” Bayne said. “They were screaming, ‘Someone’s stabbing people in the mall,’ and people were just really frantic and were running.”
It was unclear how many people were stabbed or what the extent of their injuries was.
“There were so many cop cars just responding to the area,” Bayne said.
“When I got in my car to get out people were speeding out of there,” she said. “By the time I left my coworker had texted me saying they had all gone into lockdown in the mall. There were no notifications in the mall at all, it was just people running and screaming.”
Mandy Sweeter was shopping at the Target next to Macy’s, where the stabbings occurred.
“I heard something, didn’t know what that was, but then some teenagers came into Target screaming,” Sweeter said. “I thought at first it was just teenagers acting silly on a Saturday night but then the store went on lockdown immediately.”
Stay with WCCO as this story develops.
Source: http://minnesota.cbslocal.com
