2 shootings raise question: Are shopping malls safe?

Despite two recent shootings at Seattle-area shopping malls, police and security experts say malls are no less safe than other places where people congregate in large numbers.

"It's a big public place where people gather," Tukwila police spokesman Mike Murphy said of Westfield Shoppingtown Southcenter mall, scene of Wednesday night's shooting. "For the same reason that shoppers like to gather there, bad guys like to gather there: It's convenient."

On Wednesday, two men opened fire in the mall's north parking lot, wounding a 21-year-old man, Murphy said. The shooting sent shoppers and store employees scurrying for cover.

The wounded man was in satisfactory condition Thursday at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. Tukwila police have arrested two men, ages 18 and 20, for investigation of assault.

Officials with several police departments said Thursday they have not encountered increased crime or an uptick in gang activity in area malls, including Southcenter, Northgate, Alderwood and Bellevue Square. But Wednesday's shooting, coming less than three weeks after a 15-year-old boy was shot in the leg in a parking lot at Northgate on Feb. 22, has left some shoppers and employees concerned about mall security.

"It makes me scared. Everyone knows this is one of the most dangerous malls in the area," said Abby Guzman, 25, during a visit to Southcenter mall Thursday afternoon with her son, nephew and mother. "I don't think this area is safe anymore."

At Southcenter's Isis nail salon, some employees were too frightened to return to work Thursday, according to an employee who didn't want to give her name. One of the salon's windows was covered with cardboard after being struck by a stray bullet.

"It used to be years ago that kids threw rocks at each other. Now they're resorting to shooting each other with bullets," said Mick Schloff, an employee at Shirtz To Go, a T-shirt shop at Southcenter.

Crime statistics for area malls weren't immediately available Thursday, but records show there have been at least a dozen shootings at Seattle-area malls since January 1997, including two others at Southcenter. In one of the most notorious shootings, Dominick Maldonado, then 20, opened fire at the Tacoma Mall on Nov. 20, 2005, wounding seven people and taking several customers hostage before surrendering to police.

Maldonado was sentenced last year to more than 163 years in prison.

In Lynnwood, police Sgt. Rod Cohnheim said his department has increased patrols at Alderwood mall in reaction to the Northgate shooting. "We've been ramping up our enforcement to keep a lid on things after what happened in Northgate," Cohnheim said. "We've been down there more, but we haven't seen an increase in [criminal] activity."

Cohnheim said Lynnwood officers are seeing people with known gang ties and affiliations at Alderwood but the youths generally aren't causing trouble.

"We want to make it uncomfortable for them to be at our mall," Cohnheim said.

While the Northgate shooting last month is believed to have been gang-related and Wednesday's Southcenter shooting is being investigated for having ties to gang activity, officers in Seattle and Tukwila said they don't think gang activity is rising at the malls.

"I think the Northgate thing was an anomaly," said Seattle police Lt. Ron Wilson, who oversees the department's gang unit. "I haven't seen any problems coming out of malls."

Andrew Ciarrocchi, senior general manager of Southcenter, said Wednesday's shooting was unusual but that mall security was trained to deal with the situation.

"Our security is trained to deal with all sorts of situations," Ciarrocchi said, although he declined to give details on the training.

Wednesday's Southcenter shooting was the third at the mall since Sept. 12, 2005, when a 17-year-old boy and 30-year-old man were killed in a mall parking lot during an apparent drug deal. On Sept. 9, 2006, an 18-year-old man was fatally shot during a clash between gangs at a mall bus stop.

Both shootings resulted in arrests.

Trumaine Hillard, 24, an employee at the Clearwire kiosk near Southcenter's north entrance, said he wasn't surprised by Wednesday's shooting. Large groups of teens regularly visit the mall after school and fights occasionally break out, he said

"This is the 'hood; it's no secret," Hillard said. "This is a nice mall, but this isn't the richest part of town. It's a little tougher here in the south end. Drugs, gangs and guns are expected."

Malachy Kavanagh of the New York-based trade organization International Council of Shopping Centers said malls aren't any more dangerous than the communities where they're located.

Nationwide, about 190 million people visit shopping malls each month, Kavanagh said. While most people visiting the mall don't experience problems, some crime can't be avoided, he said.

"The mall is a reflection of society; it is a reflection of the community it serves," Kavanagh said. "If the community is having an upswing of crime, the mall is going to have that, too."

A 2006 study by the Police Foundation, a Washington, D.C., think tank, found that mall security was lacking in several areas, including in the training of security guards and lack of coordination between mall security and local law-enforcement agencies. While the report focused on mall security in the event of a possible terrorist attack, the foundation said it also could apply to other incidents such as the 2005 shooting at the Tacoma Mall.

Clark Rice, security director for Kemper Development, which includes Lincoln Square, Bellevue Square and Bellevue Place, said Wednesday night's shooting and the Feb. 22 shooting at Northgate Mall were viewed as a teaching tool for his officers.

Rice said his mall-security officers are trained to not only pay attention to property crimes, such as a recent rise in vandalism and graffiti, but also to be aware that their properties could be the site of bigger problems.

"I think being alert to what's going on and trying to match resources to problems is the key," Rice said.

Seattle Times staff reporters Karen Johnson and Christine Clarridge contributed to this report.

Jennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com