Teen, Man Shot Outside Puyallup Mall -- Three Detained; Gang Link Suspected

A possible gang altercation in the parking lot of a Puyallup mall filled with holiday shoppers resulted in two young males being shot and wounded last night and three people detained as possible suspects.

The clash began about 8 p.m. outside a Target store at the South Hill Mall as a verbal confrontation between two groups of young men, according to Puyallup police.

It escalated into shoving. Then one witness heard at least five gunshots from an unknown number of weapons.

"It was a verbal fight turned into a gunfight," said another man who was present.

"It was standard gang stuff, like, `What are you looking at? What's your problem?' "

A 14-year-old boy was shot in the face. After stumbling into Target, he was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital in Puyallup and later airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. Late last night, his condition was listed as serious.

A small-caliber semiautomatic weapon was recovered at the scene.

Witnesses reported that a tan vehicle fled the scene. About an hour later, Tacoma police received a call from St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma reporting that a man who appeared to be in his early 20s had just been admitted with a gunshot wound to his abdomen. He was in satisfactory condition after surgery and was to be questioned by Puyallup police in connection with the mall shooting.

Two other men in their early 20s were detained in a tan vehicle in the mall parking lot and were being questioned late last night by Puyallup police.

No shoppers were wounded, but witnesses said there were a lot of people around at the time of the shooting, which left people at the mall shaken.

"They don't hear about shootings too often in Puyallup," said security guard Kevin Techmeier. "It's not a common thing."