61 charges filed against teen who started shooting inside Lancaster mall
Lancaster PA October 24 2021
Lancaster County officials filed 61 charges against a 16-year-old who they say fired shots inside the city mall after a fight, injuring three others, including a woman shopping at the mall with her family.
Police charged Jeremiahs J. Sanchez as an adult with two counts of criminal attempted homicide, three counts of aggravated assault, 52 counts of recklessly endangering another person and four other charges related to the stolen gun the teen allegedly used in the incident.
Sanchez remains in a hospital under police guard. He sustained gunshot wounds to his elbow and hand and an abrasion to his face.
The new details were released Friday morning during a news conference by Lancaster County District Attorney Heather Adams.
She said a 50-year-old bystander who heard the gunshots and used his own legally-possessed gun to shoot Sanchez will not be charged as his actions helped to stop more violence inside the mall.
Police previously said the incident on Sunday Oct. 17 started about 2:30 p.m. when a 16-year-old Lancaster boy pulled a gun during a fight with another male he knew. There was a struggle over the gun and other people joined in to try to wrestle the gun away.
Gunshots struck the male who was involved in the fight in the thigh; and another person who tried to intervene. A bullet also struck a 30-year-old female shopper who was 70 feet away, next to a child, Adams said.
That’s when the bystander, who was inside a store with his wife, got involved. He told his wife to go the other way and he headed toward the gunshots, Adams said.
In all, six gunshots were fired inside the mall. Police accounted for all of the bystander’s gunshots, which were fired in the direction of the suspect.
Fifty shoppers called 911, according to Adams, and all of them were interviewed as part of the investigation.
Investigators spent this week gathering and analyzing video from stores and mall security cameras, according to WGAL.
“There’s a process to go back in time, so to speak, before an incident occurred and see, for instance, when did these involved persons enter the mall?,” Lt. Glenn Stoltzfus told WGAL. “It’s a time-consuming process. You can have hours and hours of overall video that all has to be looked at because you don’t want to miss anything. You want to do a thorough and fair job to everyone involved.”
In addition to the four wounded by gunshots, including the suspect, two women were also injured as they and other stunned shoppers tried to flee the mall. None of the injuries were considered life-threatening.
The suspect’s gun was stolen from Lebanon County in September, Adams said.
