Columbia - Police have arrested a suspect in connection with a shooting at a busy shopping mall, the second such incident in the US in a weeks’ time, on Saturday that left 14 people injured.

Columbia Police Chief W.H. “Skip” Holbrook said 22-year-old Jewayne M. Price, one of the three people initially detained by the police as a person of interest, remains in custody and is expected to be charged with unlawful carrying of a pistol.

Fourteen people, aged between 15 and 73 injured during the shooting at Columbiana Centre, Holbrook said in a news release Saturday.

Holbrook said no fatalities have been reported but that nine people were shot and five people suffered injuries while attempting to flee the mall for safety.

Investigators believe that at least three suspects displayed firearms inside the mall but are working to determine how many suspects fired weapons.

Heavy police presence continued in the area hours after the shooting, more traffic were however allowed through the streets surrounding the shopping centers and strip malls that are usually packed on weekends. Officers were stationed outside a nearby hotel designated as a reunification area for people at the scene of the shooting and their families.

The shooting is the latest in a rash of shootings at or near malls across the country.

A 15-year-old boy was shot in the head Wednesday outside Brooklyn’s Atlantic Terminal Mall.

On Tuesday, a Southern California shoe store owner mistakenly shot a 9-year-old girl while firing at two shoplifters at the Mall of Victor Valley, police said.

And earlier this month, police said six people were killed and 12 others wounded in Sacramento, California, during a gunfight between rival gangs as bars closed in a busy area near the Downtown Commons shopping mall and the state Capitol.

The New York subway shooting last Tuesday left atleast 23 injured.
-AP