Shooting and charges
On August 4, police working at Mall of America responded to multiple gunshots at the Nike store, where they found three shell casings on the floor inside the entrance.
Officers checked surveillance video, which showed a fight breaking out involving six people near the checkout of the store, causing customers to run away.
Then two people involved in the altercation left the store briefly before the suspect returned and fired a handgun several times at the males involved in the fight.
The suspected shooter, identified Monday as 21-year-old Shamar Lark, and another man, identified as 23-year-old Rashad May, then ran out the north doors of the mall, into the IKEA parking lot, charges said.
It was later learned the two men may have been picked up by a Best Western hotel shuttle at IKEA and were taken to the hotel, just south of Mall of America.
Police believe May called Arnold a few minutes after the shooting, and he received five calls from Arnold between 4:20-4:23 p.m., the complaint said. Arnold then contacted his girlfriend, Selena Raghubir, who is an assistant manager at the Best Western, as well as Selena Raghubir’s cousin, Denesh Raghubir, who picked up Lark and May at IKEA in the Best Western shuttle.
Denesh Raghubir told police he knew the two men were friends of Selena Raghubir, and when he dropped them off at Best Western, Selena Raghubir immediately left the front desk and he didn’t see her for about 45 minutes, charges said. He said Selena Raghubir later called him and asked him what time police left.
On Aug. 5, officers searched Arnold and Selena Raghubir’s home and vehicle, where they found the shirts the men were wearing at the time of the shooting, charges said.
Subsequent search
During a Monday afternoon news conference, Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges released photos showing Lark and May. Hodges says May “prompted” Lark to shoot up the store – which Lark followed through on.
Police issued a nationwide warrant for Lark and May and had information that the duo could be in the Chicago area.”You cannot, in a free society, continue to enjoy all the freedoms that we have and when you show a complete lack of respect for humanity by firing in a crowded mall store,” said Chief Hodges. “We cannot tolerate that as a society.”
