2 injured, 1 in custody in shooting at Virginia mall

Associated Press

CHRISTIANSBURG, Va.

An 18-year-old student is behind bars, charged with shooting and injuring two women at a mall branch of a southwestern Virginia community college.

Christiansburg Police Chief Mark Sisson said Friday evening that Neil MacInnis of Christiansburg was charged with two counts each of malicious wounding and using a firearm in the commission of a felony. He was being held without bond at the Montgomery County Jail.

Authorities still are trying to establish a motive and any connection between MacInnis and the victims.

Sisson says MacInnis was subdued at New River Valley Mall minutes after he entered the satellite campus of New River Community College about 2 p.m. Friday.

One of the victims was airlifted to Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital, but spokesman Eric Earnhart could not provide additional information on her identity or condition.

The other victim was taken by ambulance for treatment. She was in stable condition Friday afternoon but was transferred to another hospital to get specialized care, said Nancy May, a spokesman for Lewis Gale Hospital at Montgomery.

Student Josh Brown said he was working on a computer near the classrooms when the shots were fired.

“I heard one gunshot, and I didn’t know what it was. ... I saw people running out,” he told The Roanoke Times.

Brown then got up and ran out himself.

“I’ll be scared to come back to school,” he told the newspaper as he started to cry. “What’s wrong with people? Who would do something like this?”

Friday isn’t usually a busy day at the school’s mall campus, Ben Kramer, an activities counselor for the community college, told the newspaper. Enrollment is roughly 1,500, and about a third of those students likely were on campus, he said.