CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. – Coral Springs Fire Rescue reports that one person died and another was wounded in a shooting at Coral Square Mall on Saturday morning.
Gus Kiriazis, 59, the owner Fast Fix Jewelry and Watch, came into the store and shot Sabas Antonio Ferrer, 52, who is an employee at the store, Coral Springs police said. Kiriazis then shot himself.
Ferrer was listed in stable condition after being shot several times and is recovering at Broward Health North.
Police were evacuating the shopping mall at 9469 W. Atlantic Blvd. when Stephanie Speno, 33, was walking out of Macy's. Speno said she saw two women who were on their cellphones crying.
One of them said, "there is an active shooter at the other end of the mall, please don't go that way." Speno works near Pulse night club in Orlando and was visiting family for Thanksgiving.
"I never imagined that I would go out shopping for Christmas with my mom and that five minutes later, there would be a shooting. Mom started screaming to store employees, asking them to close their doors. Then, she was telling Macy's employees," Speno said.
Veronica Santiago, 24, and her husband, Rafael Guzman, 32, were also in the mall during the shooting.
The couple had gone to Hot Topic to pick up an online order and when they left they noticed people around them looked concerned.
"We kept walking, and at Perfume Mania a girl came running ou,t crying hysterically,'" Santiago said. "We said maybe it's a robbery going on."
That's when a police officer holding a rifle went running by the pair.
"He was wearing a bulletproof vest," Santiago said."
At that point ,some stores were closing their doors, while others, Guzman said, were "clueless to what was happening."
"Nobody knew what was happening," he said. "Little by little, people began saying there was a shooting at the mall."
A witness saw Coral Springs Fire Rescue paramedics rushing a person out. Paramedics were passing the mall's Express store and running away from an area near Sears and Kohl's.
It was a scenario that shoppers, such as Guzman and Santiago, never expected.
"We never thought it'd be this," Guzman said, adding that he tends to be cautious when he goes out. "I am always looking for where the exits are. I'm one of those guys who try to observe everything."
The couple waited to outside with other shoppers before leaving the mall and heading to Boca Town Center, where they continued to shop.
Before heading in to shop, Santiago turned to her husband, who typically drops her off at the mall and picks her up, and said, "You're coming with me."
Coral Springs police closed the mall for about an hour and reopened it at about 11:05 a.m. The mall has about 120 stores.