On November 20, 2020, a shooting occurred at

Mayfair Mall Mayfair Mall is a shopping mall located on Mayfair Road (Highway 100) between North Avenue and Center Street in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, United States. It serves the Greater Milwaukee area, also Wisconsin's premier shopping Center and Largest Mall in ...

Wauwatosa Wauwatosa (; known informally as Tosa; originally Wau-wau-too-sa or Hart's Mill) is a city in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 48,387 at the 2020 census. Wauwatosa is located immediately west of Milwaukee, and is a pa ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

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. Eight people were injured but survived. The shooter fled the scene afterwards and was later arrested during a traffic stop. Police said the shooting was not a random act and had been sparked by an earlier altercation between two groups. Two days later, several people were arrested in connection with the shooting, including a 15-year-old boy.

Background

On February 2, 2020, a fatal shooting had occurred at

. In that shooting, Alvin Cole, a 17-year-old

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

male, was killed in an incident with police officers. Cole fired a bullet from a gun before being fatally shot five times by a black police officer Joseph Mensah. Mensah was suspended and eventually resigned after an independent investigation found that he was involved in two other fatal shootings, among other issues, and revealed that the bullet Cole fired hit his own arm before he was fatally shot by the officer. His resignation is effective as of November 30, 2020. Despite this, no charges were filed against the officer, sparking protests.

Shooting

At around 2:50 p.m. CST on November 20, 2020, an unidentified suspect fired between eight and fifteen shots near the entrance to the

Macy's Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...

in the mall. Officers believe the shooting was in relation to a fight near the area prior to the shooting, and they do not believe that the shooting was a random act. Eyewitnesses said they heard several shots but did not realize that it was a gun being fired until they saw victims fall to the floor. Many people fled the mall and went into the parking lots, where they used cars as cover to hide from the gunfire. Others sheltered in place or dropped to the floor to avoid the gunfire. By the time the first officers arrived at the scene, the suspect had already fled. More than 100 officers from local and federal agencies ultimately responded at the mall, including agents from the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...

. A reunification site was created away from the mall for all those that got separated during the shooting.

Victims

Seven adults and one teenager were injured in the shooting, but all of them survived. Four of the victims were involved in the altercation that sparked the shooting, while the other four were described by police as innocent bystanders.

Suspect

In a press conference, the Wauwatosa police chief said that, according to eyewitness accounts, the suspect was likely "a white male in his 20s or 30s". A later report from police clarified the suspect was a 15-year-old Hispanic male who allegedly committed the shooting due to a previous altercation with a group at the mall. The suspect was arrested during a

traffic stop A traffic stop, commonly referred to as being pulled over, is a temporary detention of a driver of a vehicle by police to investigate a possible crime or minor violation of law. United States A traffic stop is usually considered to be a T ...

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...

, during which the believed weapon he used was also recovered in the car. Two more arrests in connection with the shooting were announced; a person believed to have been involved and the passenger of the car at the traffic stop. The suspect's name was initially withheld as authorities had identified him as a 15-year-old male. However, during trial proceedings in 2022, the suspect was named as Xavier Sevilla.

Reactions

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Tony Evers Anthony Steven Evers (born November 5, 1951) is an American educator and politician serving as the 46th governor of Wisconsin since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as Wisconsin's Superintendent of Public Instruction from 200 ...

said of the shooting: "We are thinking about all the customers and workers affected by this act of violence and are grateful for the first responders who helped get people to safety. As we learn more, we offer our support for the entire Wauwatosa community as they grapple with this tragedy." The Milwaukee Office of Violence Prevention issued a statement after the shooting commending the quick response of first responders to the shooting, stating; "We commend the quick actions of mall staff and first responders in assisting families to safety and the life-saving efforts of the trauma unit at Froedtert Hospital. The Trauma Response Team is a partnership between the City of Milwaukee Office of Violence Prevention and Milwaukee County’s Child Mobile Crisis team to support children and youth exposed to violent or traumatic incidents in our community." Macy's released a statement that it was working with police officers in the investigation of the shooting, and that they were saddened by the incident and the safety of their employees and customers was their top priority.

References

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