A teenager shot and caused three people to be hospitalized on Black Friday at San Jose’s Westfield Valley Fair Mall. The juvenile was located and arrested a little over 48 hours after the shooting, according to San Jose Chief of Police Paul Joseph, in a news conference.
The three victims included an adult male, who was involved in the gang-related altercation, and two bystanders, an adult female and a 16-year-old girl. All three have since been released from the hospital, according to a statement released by the San Jose Police Department (SJPD).
At around 5:40 p.m. on Nov. 28, a 17-year-old male got into a gang-motivated verbal altercation with an adult male, and pulled a gun from his waistband. He fired multiple rounds at the adult male victim, hitting two female bystanders, according to the same police statement.
“What was truly shocking was that the juvenile suspect with the gun was accompanied by a female pushing a baby in a stroller,” Joseph said.
Police say that she helped him escape the mall, but was also later found and arrested.
The suspect had a prior arrest for carrying a loaded and concealed firearm, according to Joseph. On Dec. 3, Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen announced that he filed a series of charges against the teenager, including attempted murder for the benefit of a street gang, and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon causing great bodily harm.
Rosen is seeking to transfer the case to adult court.
“If this case remains in juvenile court, the shooter will face at most three to five years in a secure juvenile facility. I don’t believe that is sufficient in this case,” Rosen said during a Wednesday morning news conference.
About 44% of gang-related incidents over the past few months were committed by young people under the age of 18, including aggravated assault, weapons charges, and robbery, according to San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan.
“The bottom line is this. One hundred thousand people came through the mall that day, and all 100,000 eventually went home. We are so lucky that no one lost their life at Valley Fair on Friday and I do believe that our law enforcement officers’ swift and brave response is part of the reason for that,” Mahan said in a press conference.
Westfield’s Valley Fair Mall reopened on Saturday, Nov. 29, with increased security.
Audrey Clusin was present at the mall at the time of the shooting. According to Clusin, no one present at the mall at the time knew what was happening at first.
“I thought there was a fire or that someone had faked the fact that there was a shooting,” Clusin said. “I genuinely didn’t believe that there actually was a shooting because I never thought that that type of thing would happen.”
Kyle Hemmesch, an eighth grader at Tierra Linda Middle School, was also at the mall on Black Friday.
“We heard loud gunshots from across the mall,” Hemmesch said. “Everybody started screaming, running, and most people dove behind the counters of restaurants, or dove down for cover behind trash cans.”
Both Clusin and Hemmesch made it out of the mall safely, but the incident was still traumatizing.
“It sucks that you have to take these kinds of things into consideration when you’re going to a crowded place on a holiday because gun violence happens pretty frequently, and it’s just unfortunate,” Clusin said.
