Shooting at Mission Viejo Mall

As we were making the 7 hour drive home from Northern California a robber was hitting a jewelry store our favorite mall and was shot by Sheriff's deputies:

A gunman opened fire at The Shops of Mission Viejo this afternoon and was shot by sheriff's deputies.

Lt. Dan Dwyer of the Sheriff's Department says deputies responded to a robbery in progress at a jewelry store at about 5:30 p.m.

One person who called police said the man took two women hostage, and that gunfire could be heard inside the mall. The man was said to have fled to the parking structure near Nordstrom, where shots were exchanged.

No one else was hurt.

Miguel Cruz was in the mall with his two children just outside of Nordstrom when he saw the gunman in a common area of the mall, pointing his gun around. He was just about 20 feet away.

"My wife said two weeks ago a guy (in the news) was shooting up a mall, so I'm thinking about that, and I take my kids around the other way,'' Cruz, a San Juan Capistrano resident, said.

Cruz said security guards chased the man through the mall. He said he heard no shots fired inside the mall.

Some shoppers who parked in the garage where the shooting happened have been kept from entering the structure to get their cars. No word yet on when they will be able to.

We are in that mall probably 3-4 times a week. Some nights my wife and I go over there just to take a nice long walk in a "safe" environment. I can remember looking at the jewelry store and its proximity to the exit and wondering if that was really the best place to put it (I used to be the corporate security officer for a commercial bank and robbery prevention came with the job.) This won't stop us, but it does bring a bit of reality into the somewhat artificial environment of a major mall. It's more than a little strange to see shotgun-toting deputies escorting mothers pushing baby strollers to their cars, which is what was happening while they were still concerned that an accomplice might be involved.

UPDATE: According to TV news reports there was quite a crowd watching this whole robbery take place. The bad guy was in the store for quite a while and at one point took two women into the back room. When he came out and saw the crowd he pulled a weapon and started to make his escape. The Sheriff's deputies were apparently waiting for him outside where an exchange of shots took place.

Thanks to the ridiculous gun laws in California, the robber was pretty much guaranteed that nobody in the mall would have a concealed weapon and interrupt his plans (I've written about the fallacy of "gun free zones" before). Even the security guards at the mall are unarmed. They may want to rethink that.

UPDATE 2: The bad guy in the bad wig expired at Mission Viejo Hospital which has a trauma center and is right next door to the mall. There's one trial we won't have to go through. Well done, Orange County Sheriff's Department. Mission Viejo was rated the safest city in the United States. Thanks to the work of the good guys, that shouldn't change.

UPDATE 3: More details from The Register:

Amateur photographer Tom Ferris of Ladera Ranch shot photos at the scene. He talked to shoppers who told him and reporters that they saw a man in what appeared to be a wig breaking the glass cases at the Fredric Rubel jewelry store and stuffing the contents into a bag.

They said they also saw him take two women into the back of the store, apparently as hostages. When he returned to the front of the store, he pulled out a gun, and onlookers screamed.

Ferris, 29, said one woman told him, "It just didn't seem real … but once they saw the gun, everybody just screamed and kinda ran in all directions.''
He said it seemed surreal to see deputies with M-16s converge on his local mall.

"I've lived in Mission Viejo for many years, and to see something like this at the mall I go to all the time, it's a shocker,'' he said. "It just goes to show this kind of thing can happen anymore.''

UPDATE 4 (Monday morning): According to TV reports a number of shoppers who had parked in the garage structure where the shooting took place were unable to drive their cars out of there last night due to the ongoing investigation. A bunch of folks had to find another way home (and probably to work this morning). I'm hearing they'll be able to pick up their cars this morning.

I'm going to head over to the mall later today to see what's going on and grab a few photos.

UPDATE 5: I visited the scene - photos and other info here including additional info from the Sheriff's Department on how the shooting went down.

UPDATE 6: The dead perp has been identified as 27-year old Kirk Christian Knight of Rancho Santa Margarita, a community just east of Mission Viejo.

MISSION VIEJO – It was the shoulder-length, gray-blond wig that tipped off Sunday evening shoppers at The Shops at Mission Viejo that something wasn't right.

Minutes later, after robbing a jewelry store, the man in the wig would be lying in the mall parking structure, shot dead by sheriff's deputies after he fired at a crowd of security guards and customers, and then at officers.

Authorities identified the jewelry thief as Kirk Christian Knight, a 27-year-old unemployed man from south Orange County, who was armed with armor-piercing bullets and extra ammunition when he smashed through display cases, grabbing watches and gems from an upscale jeweler. Knight had already had a couple of run-ins with the law, including a conviction in Arizona for possession of burglary tools.