An apparently suicidal woman armed with a gun fled from police through Westfield Horton Plaza Tuesday, then stopped in front of a clothing store and fatally shot herself in front of horrified shoppers and employees, authorities reported.
The events that led to the shooting began about 11:30 a.m., when a motorcycle officer spotted a vehicle linked to a person who reportedly had statements about harming herself and tried to pull it over at Broadway and Fourth Avenue, according to the San Diego Police Department.
The motorist kept driving for about a block, then pulled into a parking structure at the downtown mall. At that point, one of the three occupants of the vehicle got out and entered the multi-story shopping center on foot as patrol personnel detained the other two, Lt. Scott Wahl said.
Officers, who had been notified that the woman might have a gun, chased her through the mall for about 10 minutes before she stopped, sat down in front of a third-floor Gap store, put a pistol to her head and shot herself.
Police and paramedics performed CPR on the woman at the scene before an ambulance crew took her to UCSD Medical Center in Hillcrest, where she was pronounced dead. Her name was withheld pending family notification.
Update: Police confirm woman involved in self-inflicted shooting at Horton Plaza mall today has died: https://t.co/1GcrtaunLm
— #NBC7 San Diego (@nbcsandiego) November 22, 2016
No other injuries were reported.
–City News Service
