Shooting At Cincinnati Target: 1 Dead, Shooter Flees In Vehicle

CINCINNATI, OH — One person was shot and killed in the parking lot of a Target store in Cincinnati, and the shooter fled in a vehicle, police say.

Around 1 p.m. Thursday, police officers rushed the store with guns drawn, video posted on social media showed. One person was shot in the parking lot, police officials said, and police were searching for the shooter.

About 45 minutes after the gunfire, police said there was an active police investigation at the store in Oakley, but emphasized there was "NOT an active shooter."

"Please avoid the shopping center while our officers continue their investigation," police said. "We will have officers in the area directing traffic."

Aftab Pureval, the mayor of Cincinnati, and Teresa Theetge, the city's interim police chief, told reporters 911 operators received multiple calls of an "active shooter" at Target, but clarified it was not an active shooter situation.

"At about 1 o' clock this afternoon, our 911 center started receiving 911 calls from witnesses that there was an individual firing a gun in the area of the Target store up here in the Oakley neighborhood," Theetge said.

The panicked calls led law enforcement to send officers to a possible active shooter situation. They determined upon arriving at the store that it was not an active shooter situation.

"It was a shooter who had an intended target, and he fired his gun and hit that individual in the parking lot just outside the front doors of the Target store," she said, noting the shooting did not happen inside the Target.

No store workers or customers inside the store were hurt.

"He only fired and shot at his intended target," Theetge said. That person, identified only as a male, died of their injuries.

The shooter fled the area in a vehicle immediately after the shooting. His identity wasn't immediately known.

SWAT officers cleared both floors of the building as employees and shoppers sheltered inside.

Video posted on Twitter showed a fire engine and police outside the store, located on Geier Drive. Bob Brumberg told Patch in a Twitter message he heard about 10-12 shots in "rapid succession" and saw employees run out of the building.

Jazmine Williams, 23, of North College Hill told The Cincinnati Enquirer she was in the electronics section when people darted toward her. An employee told her someone was shooting. She and others ran to a Chick-fil-A restaurant next door.

"It was really scary for me, yes, because I've never been in a situation like this before," she said.

Video posted by Jenna Cisneros of WKRC showed an exit ramp near the store "completely blocked" by police vehicles with lights activated.