BREAKING NEWS | Pregnant Woman Among 7 Shot at Spirit Halloween Store in California

File photo: a Spirit Halloween store at The Shops at Sunset Place in South Miami, Florida, in 2022. This is not the Fairfield, California, store. Photo by Phillip Pessar, Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY 2.0. Cropped by The Fostoria Free Press.

Author: FFP Ai Bot

FAIRFIELD, Calif. – A woman whose family says she was pregnant was killed and six other people were wounded Friday night when gunfire erupted inside a Spirit Halloween store at a Northern California shopping mall, police said. The shooter has not been caught.

The shooting happened at about 8:30 p.m. local time Friday, Oct. 30, inside the Halloween costume and decor store at Solano Town Center in Fairfield, according to the Fairfield Police Department. In a statement posted Saturday on Facebook, the department said the shooting “stemmed from a targeted incident involving one suspect.”

Police identified the woman who died as Constance Hages, 31. Her family told police she was pregnant, though confirmation from the Solano County Coroner was still pending, NBC News reported.

Police said three male victims, ages 16, 19 and 32, were in critical condition. A 23-year-old man was hospitalized in critical but stable condition. Two other men, ages 19 and 43, were treated for gunshot wounds and released from the hospital. (The Los Angeles Times reported the younger of those two men as 18; police figures reported by NBC News, CBS Sacramento, KCRA and the Daily Republic list him as 19.)

Search for the shooter

No arrests had been made as of Saturday. Detectives were reviewing video footage and other evidence “to identify the individual responsible for this heinous act of violence,” the department said. Police said no additional information would be released for now.

Fairfield Police Chief Dan Marshall told reporters at a news conference Friday night that detectives were “diligently working to identify the suspect or suspects responsible for this horrific shooting.”

The FBI’s Sacramento field office said it deployed its evidence response team to assist Fairfield police with the investigation.

A man whose wife was inside the store told NBC affiliate KCRA that she escaped through an emergency exit with several other people after hearing what she described as “five big bangs.”

“We recognize the concern and uncertainty this incident has created throughout our community, particularly with the many Halloween events and celebrations planned for today,” the police department said Saturday, urging residents to stay vigilant and report suspicious activity.

Mall cancels trick-or-treat event

Solano Town Center, which has about 130 stores and restaurants, stayed open Saturday but canceled a trick-or-treating event that had been planned for Halloween, citing the shooting, The Associated Press reported.

Fairfield, a city of about 120,000 people, sits about 37 miles southwest of Sacramento, roughly halfway between Sacramento and San Francisco.

Separate shooting in Michigan

The California shooting came hours after a separate deadly shooting at a Spirit Halloween store in Madison Heights, Michigan, a Detroit suburb. Madison Heights police said a 21-year-old Detroit resident was shot and later died at a hospital.

Police said the alleged shooter in that case, also 21, suffered injuries that were not life-threatening after several bystanders assaulted him as officers took him into custody. CBS Detroit and FOX 2 Detroit reported that the people who attacked him were members of the victim’s family. He was taken to a hospital, and investigators said they anticipate seeking criminal charges.

The two shootings do not appear to be connected, according to NBC News.

What’s next

Fairfield police are continuing to search for the shooter, and the Solano County Coroner is expected to confirm whether Hages was pregnant. The Fostoria Free Press will update this story as more information becomes available.

This report is based on information from the Fairfield Police Department, the FBI, NBC News and The Associated Press.

Sources: NBC News; The Associated Press (via Northern News Now).