Witness: Gunman looked like an 'average Joe'

From behind the counter at Bath & Body Works, Marie Smith could see the man with the shotgun through the store window. She watched as he turned, raised the gun and fired at a young woman approaching him from behind.

"We made eye contact, but I don't think I heard him say a thing," the 23-year-old store manager said hours later. "I saw her fall."

The man with the shotgun opened fire randomly in the historic Trolley Square shopping mall about 6:45 p.m. Monday, killing five and injuring several others before he was killed, police said.

"I don't think she saw that he had a gun," said Smith, who dropped to the floor after the shooting and crawled to safety in an employee restroom to hide with others.

The man with the gun, she said, looked like "an average Joe."

"His expression stayed totally calm. He didn't seem upset, or like he was on a rampage," she said."

Police have not yet identified the man and declined to say how he died.

For hours after the shooting spree, police searched mall stores for scared, shocked shoppers and employees who were hunkered down awaiting a safe escort from the mall.

"We have six fatalities and multiple victims at hospitals," police Detective Robin Snyder said. "They were found throughout the mall. I don't know male or female or ages."

At least four people were hospitalized, three in critical condition and one in serious condition, hospital spokesmen said. Two of the critically injured were a 16-year-old man and a 50-year-old man, a spokesman said.

Authorities could offer offered few details about the shootings and said they were unclear about a possible motive.

The two-story mall, southeast of downtown, is a refurbished trolley barn built in 1908, with a series of winding hallways, brick floors, wrought-iron balconies and about 80 stores, including high-end retailers such as Williams-Sonoma and restaurants such as the Hard Rock Cafe.

Matt Lund, whose wife manages a clothing store, said he saw a woman's body face-down at the entrance to Pottery Barn Kids. He locked himself and four others inside a storage room for about 40 minutes, isolated but still able to hear the violence.

"We heard them say, 'Police! Drop your weapon!' Then we heard shotgun fire. Then there was a barrage of gunfire," Lund, 44, said. "It was hard to believe."