06-02-2025
Maine Mall shooting: Police say suspect left through food court exit
Feb. 5—South Portland police are searching for a person they say shot someone inside the Maine Mall on Wednesday afternoon. First responders brought the victim to Maine Medical Center with a gunshot wound to the leg. Their condition is still unknown.
South Portland police shared photos of the suspect and said anyone who sees them should call 911 and not approach. City spokesperson Shara Dee said the department only saw the suspect on camera footage and does not know their identity at this time.
The mall was closed while police conduct a slow search, according to an alert from the department. The suspect was spotted on surveillance video leaving through the food court exit. Police said the public should still avoid the mall area while they continue the investigation.
The shooting appears to be an "isolated incident" and police do not believe the public is at risk, according to a city announcement.
Officers were still inside the building more than two hours after their initial response, along with some shoppers who sheltered inside. Around 6:45 p.m., Dee said police transitioned from a "slow check" of each store to an evacuation. The mall made an announcement to all stores that the employees can now leave through the food court entrance, she said.
Stacie Estrella, a traveling nurse from Texas who is currently working at Maine Medical Center, said in Facebook messages to a reporter that she was sheltering in place inside the Old Navy and was let out around 6:30 p.m. She said she had been able to hear the department's K9 dogs barking while inside.
A pair of German foreign exchange students stepped out of the food court entrance at around 5:30 p.m. They ducked under the police line, then stepped back to take a photo from behind the yellow tape.
One of the boys, Niklas Germann, a student at Bonny Eagle High School, said they were in a changing room when the mall went into lockdown. He said they "saw nothing."
"You hear stores from America of shootings, school shootings," he said. "But only hearing it from TV or stories. And now I'm in (it) — that's crazy."
Betty Tundel, of Windham, stepped out of the food court entrance around 6:15 p.m. carrying a bag from Soma. She spent much of the early evening waiting in the shop's back storage room, she said.
"I just came over to do a quick errand," Tundel said. "We didn't know what was happening."
She and a handful of others in the room joined in prayer. She said the situation could have turned out much worse.
A friend outside the mall fed her details from the news, Tundel said. The storage room did not have locking doors or a way to peer outside, she said.
As she evacuated the building, she saw food scattered through the food court and thought "it must have been very frightening, because that was nearby what was happening," she said.
A South Portland Police Department forensics truck pulled up near the JC Penney entrance around 5 p.m., joining dozens of law enforcement vehicles, which littered the parking lot by the food court and blocked the roads in and out of the lot.
Police wearing tactical gear and carrying long guns stepped into the building. A handful of people walked out of the food court doors. A few minutes later, police escorted shoppers out of the Ulta Beauty in the parking lot.
No other information about the incident has been released. A spokesperson for the mall said they could not comment.
South Portland police asks anyone with information about the suspect or this shooting to contact Detective Lieutenant Christopher Todd at 207-799-5511 Ext. 7448 or christo@ or leave an anonymous tip at 207-347-4100.
This story will be updated.
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