February 13, 2007 - 4:00PM
Gunmen in separate US incidents today have randomly killed a number of shoppers in mall and directors in a boardroom.
In the first incident, a gunman entered a mall in Salt Lake City in Utah and began randomly shooting, hitting several people before he was killed.
"There have been multiple victims and there are some fatalities. ... I can't confirm the number,'' police Detective Robin Snyder said outside the Trolley Square Mall.
At least two people - males aged 16 and 50 - were in a critical condition, a University Hospital spokesperson said.
Authorities had few immediate details about how the crime unfolded but said the gunman entered the mall about 6.45pm local time, Mr Snyder said.
Antique store owner Barrett Dodds, 29, said he saw a man in a trench coat exchanging gunfire with a police officer outside a card store. The gunman was backed into a children's clothing store, he said.
"I saw the cops go in the store. I saw the shooter go down,'' said Dodds, who watched from the second floor.
Barb McKeown, 60, of Washington, DC, was in another antique shop when two frantic women ran in and reported gunshots.
"Then we heard shot after shot after shot - loud, loud, loud,'' she said. She and three other people hid under a staircase until it was safe to leave.
Streets were blocked outside the mall as police swarmed the mall. Dozens of people lingered on the footpath, many wrapped in blankets as they talked about what they had seen inside.
The two-storey mall is a refurbished trolley barn, with a series of winding hallways and about 80 stores.
Gunman kills three at business meeting
In the other incident a gunman killed three people at a business meeting before turning the gun on himself in a Philadelphia office building.
The gunman appeared to get upset at a board of directors meeting for a company that might have been an investment firm, police Deputy Commissioner Richard Ross said.
The gunman also died. Another person was critically injured. Another two men were present but not shot, police said.
The shooting took place in a second-floor conference room in a business at the Philadelphia Naval Business Centre, police said.
Ross described the scene inside the conference room as "utter chaos''.
Police received an emergency call at about 8.30pm local time of a shooting in Building 79 of the business park formerly known as the Navy Yard.
Police said the man, who had a semi-automatic handgun, got into an argument about "some issue about money'' with others at the board meeting.
After the gunman shot the men in the conference room, he shot at police, who returned fire.
The gunman then moved behind a door and shot himself, police said.
Two of the men who were present but not shot were duct-taped, officials said. Ross said at least one of the duct-taped men was bound so tightly that an officer had to use a knife to free him.
Police did not immediately release the names of anyone involved, and were unsure of the name of the company involved.
The Philadelphia Navy Shipyard was one of the US navy's busiest shipbuilders during World War II, but since those years, much of the commercial shipbuilding industry has moved to Japan and South Korea where production costs are cheaper.
After 1970, the yard only refurbished military vessels, and the Navy Yard closed in 1995.
Two years later, Kvaerner resumed commercial shipbuilding in a portion of the shipyard, and other areas of the navy facility have been converted to business and office use.
Sydney Morning Herald http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/shoppe ... 55383.html
