Police release new records in Mayfair Mall shooting investigation
WAUWATOSA, Wis. (CBS 58) -- Wauwatosa police released hundreds of pages of investigation records from last November's shooting at Mayfair Mall.
A 15-year-old boy is charged with shooting eight people.
The records reveal mall security cameras in the area of the shooting weren't working. Mall tenants said that is unusual in their experience.
“It’s been 13 years I’ve been working at the mall, and I’ve never had experience with cameras not working,” Ramsha Mughal said.
For tenants like Bruce Riley, the newly-released tapes remind them of a frightening time.
“My first priority was her, my daughter Jordan," Riley said. "She was in the space when the shooting was taking place. Made sure she ran to the back of the office and locked herself in.”
Witnesses told police one person threw a punch and then the shooting started.
As police raced to the scene, the first officers inside began treating victims and trying to find out where the shooter was.
"Do we know where the shooter is, negative, nobody knows, nobody has a description," said police over the radio.
Police later revealed the shooter had escaped from the scene. The newly-released records reveal he took an Uber.
Police used that information to track text messages from the phone.
On it, they found a hurried text conversation asking about booking a flight for a minor.
A witness told police two men were at the top of the escalator near Abercrombie and Fitch and another group was down below.
The witness said one of the men ran down the escalator and punched another person.
The witness said the shooter stood back, eventually showed the gun, and then started to shoot.
The man who started the fight told police he hit the biggest person he could because he was afraid they'd hit him.
He ended up shot, too.
Milwaukee police arrested the shooter the following day.
Undercover officers had followed the car the shooter was in and stopped it at S. 21st and Maple, arresting the shooter in the back seat. The shooter has been charged with eight felonies. He's being tried as a juvenile.
The mall has since increased security measures, like adding K-9 units to detect weapons, which tenants said they think was a good decision.
“If you look around you’ll notice there’s more security," Bruce Riley said. "There’s more police officers and the K9 dogs and it makes the customers feel safe as well as me, being a tenant.”
“I don’t feel like it’s intrusive in any way," Danielle Riley said. "It’s just kind of comforting to have that extra level of security here.”