Suspected gunman in Mall of America shooting captured in Chicago
A man suspected of opening fire a week ago in the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, was captured Thursday in Chicago, authorities said. His alleged accomplice was also apprehended.
Twenty-one-year-old Shamar Lark, who police previously identified as the suspected Mall of America gunman, was taken into custody Thursday afternoon, police said. His alleged accomplice, 23-year-old Rashad May, was also arrested.
The two had been the subject of a multiagency manhunt for several days.
At about 2:15 p.m. on Thursday, May and Lark were observed leaving a Chicago barber shop and getting into a car being driven by a female, police said. The car was stopped by law enforcement and the two men were arrested. A gun was also recovered, police said.
Earlier this week, police had identified Lark as the shooting suspect, stating that he was wanted on suspicion of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon, intentional discharge of a firearm and carrying a pistol without a permit in a public place, according to a criminal complaint filed in Hennepin County.
May was wanted on suspicion of aiding an offender to avoid arrest.
Meanwhile, three others — 21-year-old Denesh Raghubir, 23-year-old Selena Raghubir and 23-year-old Delyanie Kwen-Shawn Arnold — were taken into custody earlier this week and were charged with helping Lark and May escape.
Two of those suspects, Selena Raghubir and Denesh Raghubir, are cousins and were Best Western Hotel employees, police said.
On Aug. 4, the Mall of America was placed on lockdown after shots were fired in what police called an "isolated incident." The shooting caused chaos, sending panicked customers and employees running for safety. Bloomington Police chief Booker Hodges said that there had been an altercation between two groups near the cash registers of a Nike store. One of the groups left, but then returned, and one person fired three shots into the store, Hodges said. No injuries were reported.
In a news conference Monday, Hodges told reporters that Lark and May had lost a fight involving multiple other people in the Nike store. The two later returned after May told Lark to shoot up the store, Hodges said, and Lark fired three shots into the crowded store before both men fled.
Lark and May then contacted Arnold and asked for help to escape the mall, Hodges said. Arnold reached out to his girlfriend, Selena, an assistant general manager at a Best Western located near the mall, who sent her cousin Denesh, another hotel employee, to drive the hotel shuttle to an Ikea parking lot and pick up Lark and May, according to Hodges.
Denesh then drove Lark and May to the Best Western, where Arnold picked them up and took them to a Bloomington home that he shares with Selena, Hodges said.
Hodges said that Denesh lied to officers who had tracked the shuttle to the Best Western, making them believe the two suspects were still at the hotel after they had left. Police then placed the hotel on lockdown to search for Lark and May.
The Raghubir cousins have since been fired from Best Western.
May and Lark are being held in the Cook County Jail, awaiting extradition.