Two men were killed Friday night in a shooting at an Arizona restaurant inside a mall, a sheriff’s spokesman told reporters.
An altercation at the Firebirds restaurant inside the La Encantada mall in north Tucson led to a shooting about 7:30 p.m. (local time), Pima County sheriff spokesman Cody Gress said in a news conference.
The shooting was contained to the restaurant.
Several people were in the restaurant at the time, but only a woman was injured with a gunshot to the leg. She is being treated at a local hospital.
“All three individuals were known to each other, but the specifics of the relationship are unknown,” Gress said.
Authorities said it’s unclear what the altercation was about, and how it escalated into a shooting.
Eyewitness accounts
“It looked like two gentlemen were fighting, it was hard to tell,” Laura Harder told CNN affiliate KGUN. “I saw a gun come out and he just shot him in the head right in front of us,” Harder said.
Harder said the restaurant was full when she noticed something was happening at a nearby table. After the shooting, she saw how the gunman grabbed the other man’s companion by the arm and pushed her down a hallway.
Harder was in the ground crawling to an exit when she heard two more gunshots.
“I assumed he had shot her,” she said.
As gunshots erupted, patrons began screaming and running out the restaurant.
Toni Esquibel was celebrating her daughter’s 13th birthday along with family and friends. They had just been served their meals when the commotion began and they took cover under their table.
“There were probably about 10 shots. It was pretty harrowing. Pretty harrowing, not fun for young girls to have to go through that kind of experience,” Esquibel told CNN affiliate KOLD-TV.
