Security guards shot near Target at downtown Los Angeles shopping mall

Police are searching for a shooter after two security guards who were trying to stop a shoplifter were shot near the Target at a downtown Los Angeles shopping mall, according to authorities.

Officers were called to the 700 block of S. Figueroa Street for a report of a shooting just before 9 p.m. Two people were found with gunshot wounds at the FIGat7th shopping mall, where police said the security guards tried to stop a shoplifter.

One of the victims was in critical condition. One of the guards was armed, but it was not immediately clear whether the guard used the weapon.

Witnesses scrambled for safety in what they described as a frightening scene. Lucas Williams, who was in the area at the time, said he was walking out a business door when he heard shots.

“By the time I got to the staircase, you just hear two shots go off,” Williams said. “Everybody was kind of, you think it’s a firework; you don’t assume the worst immediately. Then, there’s like six more shots pretty quickly. Nobody really looked back because you could kind of hear bullets whisking by us. We just started running up the stairs. The main thing I remember is there was a little girl next to me and just seeing her family picking her and running off.”

Police described the gunman as a man who dressed in all black and had a gray scarf and a gray backpack.

A 9-year-old boy and a 24-year-old woman were stabbed at the store on Nov. 15, 2022, by a 40-year-old homeless man, who was shot and killed by a security guard employed by Target.