Police Hunt For Teaneck Man In Connection With Garden State Plaza Gunfire

UPDATE: Garden State Plaza Gunman Found Dead In Mall, Prosecutor Says

By Jim Leggate, Devin McGinley, Zak Koeske and Noah Cohen

A man armed with a long gun opened fire Monday night in the upper level of the Garden State Plaza, forcing the mall into a lockdown deep into the night and sparking a massive search for the shooter.

Nobody was injured when the man -- dressed in all black and wearing a helmet -- began firing into the ceiling on the second level of the mall's Nordstrom wing, authorities and witnesses said.

A law enforcement source identified a man sought for questioning in the incident as Richard Shoop, a 20-year-old restaurant worker from Teaneck. Investigators in Teaneck blocked off Emerson Avenue, on which Shoop's family lives.

Heavily-armed police were seen entering the Teaneck home around 1:30 a.m. and authorities closed off the area through early Tuesday. 

The area's busiest mall will remain closed Tuesday, and authorities will hold a press conference early Tuesday at the nearby Paramus baseball complex.

The mall was still locked down well after midnight, as authorities worked to evacuate and question those who remained inside. Paramus Deputy OEM Coordinator James Tedesco said authorities believe the shooter exited the mall.

"This is a scene we need to secure and need to get everyone out of the mall safe," Tedesco said.

Tedesco said that authorities have a video of the shooter and have recovered a shell casing. Police were focusing their presence near the entrance to Nordstrom.

The gunshots came less than three hours before the midnight release of Call of Duty:Ghost, the latest in the wildly-popular first-person shooter franchise. GameStop, which is near Nordstrom in the Garden State Plaza, was among stores nationwide scheduled to participate in the midnight sale, but there was no evidence early Tuesday that the gunfire was related to the game release.

Mall workers said they heard two series of shots before being ordered to evacuate. Authorities said the incident occurred at 9:19 p.m. while the mall was still open.

Witnesses described the gunman as wearing a black leather jacket and pants, a backpack and a motorcycle helmet with the visor open. They detailed a chaotic scene in which they took cover in stores between bursts of gunfire.

Anthea Brown, 26, who works at Talbots, said she looked the gunman in the eyes.

"I just froze," Brown said. "I didn't know what to think. He just looked at me and kept on moving."

Clarice Forbes, of Paterson, who also works at Talbots, said the man walked by the store while shooting a rifle into air.

“It was very, very terrifying. Very scary,” Forbes said.

Alaa Hegazi, a contractor working in the mall, said the shooter told him, “I don’t want to shoot anyone here, just let me go."

Ben Fastman, who manages a kiosk selling hair products, said people ran past his kiosk screaming, “There’s shooting, there’s shooting.”

Authorities set up a staging area for anyone traveling to the mall to pick up people who were trapped during the lockdown. Cars were permitted to enter the Chili’s parking lot adjacent to Route 17 south, the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office said in a news release.