GRAND CHUTE, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Authorities from multiple departments responded to the Fox River Mall Tuesday for a report of a man with a gun.
An evacuation order played over the mall’s loud speaker shortly after 6 p.m.
Captain Mike Velie with the Grand Chute Police Department tells WLUK officers got a call from a person saying shoppers might be in danger.
According to Velie the caller was contacted by a family member who said was out to hurt himself or others.
“Apparently advised this person to contact police because he was in the mall and he was armed. So as a precaution we met with mall security and made the determination that we’d lock down the mall and begin searching for this individual”
That man was not found and no one was hurt.
Grand Chute police say they are looking for 28-year-old Christopher Hawkins.
Investigators say Hawkins has a history of mental health issues, and should be considered armed and dangerous.Hawkins is described as being a black man, about 5’9″ tall and weighing 150 lbs.
He has short hair and a goatee. Hawkins frequently wears a diamond stud earring in his right ear and a tan two-tone hat with a tag on top.
Police say Hawkins may be in a white car with no license plate, and may be from out of state.
Captain Velie says there were rumors of a shooting in a mall, but that did NOT happen.
“There was no disturbance in the mall, no indication, no problem at all in the mall”
Anne Riley was shopping at Bath and Body Works when the mall was shut down.
“It was very scary!” she exclaimed.
Riley said employees immediately got the more than 80 customers out of harm’s way.
“An alarm rang out through the mall where it said ’emergency.’ They closed the doors to all the stores, took us into the back rooms and we just were basically held there safely until the ‘all clear’ was sounded”.
Police said it took about two hours to get the hundreds of people inside evacuated.
The mall remained closed the remainder of the evening Tuesday, as a precaution.
