Man Fatally Shoots Ex-Wife At Thousand Oaks Mall In Attempted Murder-Suicide
THOUSAND OAKS (CBSLA) – A female employee of a store at a Thousand Oaks mall is dead after her ex-husband shot her and attempted to shoot himself.
Sometime before 2:30 p.m., Ventura County Sheriff's deputies responded to The Oaks Mall, located at 350 W Hillcrest Dr., for reports of gunshots.
The 30 year-old-woman was working at the Paper Source stationary store when her ex-husband entered the store, began arguing with her and fatally shot her.
The 33-year-old then attempted to kill himself with the gun but failed. He was taken to a local hospital with a gunshot wound.
Family members who were at different locations in the mall when the shooting happened had tearful reunions when the chaos subsided.
"We were stuck in a different store. We split up, so it was just hard not being with her," said shopper Sherry Samuels with tears in her eyes after she found her daughter nearly two hours later.
"I didn't see the actual shooter, but I just saw, like, four shots — I heard four shots," said teen Aman Sehra.
"Then everyone started pushing each other down the stairs to run, and then people were screaming 'gunshots. So my dad grabbed me and ran into Vans," his brother Shawn said.
Some who were in the mall hid and waited until it was safe to come out.
Mall employee Stephanie Fallon sat in a closet for almost two hours.
"I was able to kind of look up some articles, then every few minutes, see if there were any updates," said Fallon.
The man was listed in critical condition Saturday evening.
The couple had children who were not present at the shooting.
