Man, 18, arrested in shooting at Fashion Show mall

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Steve Marcus

Metro Police officers head into the Fashion Show mall after a shooting Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2020.

Published Tue, Jan 21, 2020 (7:10 p.m.)

Updated Wed, Jan 22, 2020 (4:53 p.m.)

Three Injured In Fashion Show Mall Shooting

Metro Police stage on the south side of the Fashion Show Mall after a shooting Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2020. Launch slideshow »

An 18-year-old man has been arrested in a shooting Tuesday evening at the Fashion Show mall in which three people were wounded, according to Metro Police.

Through investigation, gang detectives identified the suspect as Christopher Valenzuela-Olivas, police said.

The teen and an acquaintance were arguing with another person at the Las Vegas Strip mall when Valenzuela-Olivas, who was about to leave, took out a handgun and fired multiple rounds, striking the person he was arguing with and two bystanders, police said.

Valenzuela-Olivas and his companion fled before officers arrived, police said.

Valenzuela-Olivas was taken into custody Wednesday without incident, police said. He was taken to the Clark County Detention Center, where he faces three counts of attempted murder, police said.

Police said the victims suffered nonlife-threatening injuries. They were treated at University Medical Center and released, police said.

Amid the chaos of the shooting, which took place about 6:15 p.m., police locked down the mall and searched it thoroughly to ensure there were no suspects in the “immediate vicinity,” Metro Capt. DoriKoren said.

This wasn't the first time gunshots have gone off at the mall, located in the tourist corridor at 3200 Las Vegas Boulevard South.

Last Memorial Day, a gunman who was in a confrontation with two men pulled out a gun, pointed it in the air and fired a round through the roof, causing what Metro described at the time as "mass hysteria."

Investigators later caught up to a 24-year-old Detroit resident, who had fled in a cab, and booked him on multiple counts of assault with a deadly weapon.

In 2014, during a confrontation between two groups near the food court, a man was shot in the neck. At the time, the man was not collaborating with investigators, refusing to identify himself, those who shot him and how he got to the hospital.

"We've got young men, armed, dangerous and one says something to another and we don't know what that is, but they go from zero to a high order of violence and start shooting," a Metro spokesman said after that incident.

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