An armed man in a fight inside a mall packed with Christmas shoppers on Thursday in Charlotte, North Carolina, was fatally shot in what emergency officials described as an "officer- involved shooting."
The officers were working as off-duty security and responded to an altercation between two groups of subjects, a spokesman for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department said.
Officials said the situation appeared contained.
"There was one armed subject that was shot during the altercation and he was pronounced deceased on scene by Medic. No officers were injured during this shooting," spokesman Keith Trietley said in a statement.
Further details on the person killed and the officers involved in the incident were not immediately available.
The mall has been secured with no continuing threat, said Jeff Keith, deputy director of the Mecklenburg Emergency Medical Services Agency.
"With all the things that have occurred in this country in the past couple of years, we want to assure people that this is an isolated, specific event, not of any random nature," he said, without commenting on the reports of the death.
Two young people got into a fight near a shoe store and one shot the other. Police then intervened and shot the person with the gun, local media reported witnesses as saying.
At least two people suffered minor injuries when they were caught in the crowds trying to flee from the gunfire, authorities said.
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