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Police find no evidence of shots fired after Concord Mills lockdown

CONCORD. N.C. — Pure panic and chaos erupted inside Concord Mills mall Saturday night after reports of a shooting, which briefly caused a lockdown.

Concord police surrounded the mall and blocked off entrances, but later said it was a false alarm.

Two people got into a fight in the food court and officers quickly stepped in, police said. Someone screamed about gunfire and that spread throughout the mall.

The lockdown was lifted around 7:30 p.m., but people quickly evacuated and backed up traffic in the area.

Police said there were no shots fired, no guns were found and there weren’t any injuries.

Concord police said two 14-year-old girls got into a fight and someone yelled, “Gun.”

"There (was) no gunfire there (were) young people in the mall creating a little chaos,” police Capt. Deckster Barlowe said. “They think it's a joke. It's funny to them but it's not funny to us."

Police said that chairs being knocked over, hitting the concrete floor, might have mimicked gunfire and they believe some teens were popping bags, which added to the hysteria.

"If we can identify anyone who incited these actions and caused this chaos, we'll be looking to charge them with anything we can," Barlowe said.

"I work at the kiosk closest to the food court and I saw 300 to 400 people running towards me,” said Cameron Carter, a mall employee. “So, at that point, I just knew everybody needed to run."

Kristy Presnell, who was shopping with her two small children, said she was willing take a bullet for them.

"Everybody was running, crying. There were people dragging their children, people were tipping and falling,” she said.  “I was trying to keep my kids on the opposite side of me where if there were any bullets coming I was going to make sure they would get me, not them."

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