A man who stopped to eat with his family at a shopping mall was killed by a stray bullet during a fight over the escalator between two groups of young men, police said. Two of the youths were seriously wounded.
Police said the fight began when one group tried to pass the other on the escalator Monday evening at the Irving Mall in suburban Dallas. One youth pulled a pistol in the fast-food area and fired several shots, police said.The gunman escaped, and police made no immediate arrests.
Kevin Reuss Bacon, a 37-year-old electrician, was fatally shot in the head as his wife and their two young daughters joined more than 100 people in the food court, a cluster of takeout restaurants around a communal seating area.
Richard Damon Clark, 18, was critically wounded in the abdomen, and Christopher Deon Bagley, 19, was in serious condition with a thigh wound.
Both groups confronted each other with gang symbols and insults before the shooting, said Will Martinez, who was working at the Taco Bell counter.
The gunfire caused panic in the food court. Store managers immediately dropped their security gates.
"Everybody was ducking down and jumping over tables. It was scary," said Mike Smelser, an employee at a Wendy's restaurant.