[Gerald]

As throngs of patrons strolled and browsed at the Mall in Columbia on a gray, cold Saturday, shotgun blasts rang out and bodies fell as a familiar tragedy — homicidal lunacy in a crowded public place — brought terror to a suburban Maryland shopping complex.

It happened just after 11 a.m., about 25 miles northeast of Washington. A gunman opened fire on the mall’s second level, killing two employees of Zumiez, a clothing store for skateboarders and snowboarders, Howard County police said. Minutes later, when officers arrived, they found the shooter dead of an apparently self-inflicted wound.

Unpleasant news.


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