At least two people were killed and up to 60 shots were fired at Clackamas Town Center outside of Portland Tuesday afternoon.
A police spokesman, Lt. James Rhodes, announced that the shooter was also dead by an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, bringing the total number of fatalities to three.
On Wednesday, authorities identified the shooter as Jacob Tyler Roberts, a 22-year-old who used a stolen semi-automatic weapon when he opened fire at the busy mall Tuesday afternoon.
There were an estimated 10,000 shoppers inside the mall, including middle and high school students and University students home for winter break.
An Emerald copy editor, Lindsey Tucker, was at the mall at the time of the shooting.
“My mom and I had pulled up to Barnes & Noble and we were walking up to the doors and I noticed two people running out; I thought it was kind of odd,” she said. “Then all of a sudden a whole rush of people came through the doors screaming, ‘shots fired, leave!’”
An Oregon alum, Benjamin Christensen, was also at the mall at the time of the shooting.
I am outside and safe. I got taken down and handcuffed on my way out but was let go once they realized I wasn’t the suspect. #HatsandTats
— Benjamin Christensen (@Shakabrodie) December 12, 2012
Clackamas Town Center is about 20 minutes from downtown Portland, and many UO students were near the area, having gone home for winter break.
Going to Lasalle for 4 years of my life and being inside that mall many times makes this tragedy close to home for me #ClackamasShooting
— Patrick Ihnken (@PatrickIhnken) December 12, 2012
UPDATE: Recent UO graduate Nevin Yu was working on the first floor of Macy’s when shots were fired. Initially, he thought a large clothing rack had fallen over somewhere in the store until he heard an additional “bang, bang, bang!” two seconds later.
“I tried to stay calm since there was no time for me to be scared,” said Yu.
Yu says that he saw people run down the escalator from the second floor, screaming that somebody had a gun and was shooting.
“To be honest, the first thing that came to my mind was, ‘get the heck out of here!’,” said Yu.
Despite this, Yu directed customers to the exit closest to the parking lot.
“The executives of Macy’s led us across the parking lot and to another plaza right across the street. The policemen arrived two minutes after we evacuated, so I must say they are pretty effective,” Yu said.
As a former UO student from Hong Kong who has lived in the U.S. for only five years, Yu says that he is always on alert because this is not his home country, but never thought he would experience something like this, especially in a mall as large as Clackamas Town Center.
