Deputies rushed to Clackamas Town Center on Thursday night after a report of possible gunshots, and no injuries were reported. By the time people started calling the KATU newsroom shortly before 11 p.m., witnesses said patrol cars were already clustered around the mall and shoppers were being moved out.
Witnesses said they heard more than a dozen gunshots while they were at the mall to see the new Spider-Man movie. One reporter at the mall saw a deputy drive by, adding to the sense that something serious was unfolding even as deputies said they believed there was no threat to the public.
The scene was at Clackamas Town Center in Happy Valley, Ore., and the response turned into a fast-moving evening of evacuation and questioning. Deputies were investigating and interviewing witnesses, but the immediate question was simpler: whether the sound people heard was gunfire at all.
That is the gap left open late Thursday night. Witnesses were adamant about what they heard, but deputies had not found evidence that matched the alarm, and their view was that the public was not in danger. The next step is the investigation itself, which will have to sort out the reports from the evidence and decide whether the mall scare was a shooting or something that only sounded like one.
