This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2007, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Posted: 9:38 PM- Police were reporting "multiple" deaths after a man opened fire Monday night at a downtown Salt Lake City mall. Another five people were wounded in the 7 p.m. attack at Trolley Square before police killed the gunman.

Ron Mason and DeEta Barta, of Salt Lake City, said they were eating at the Desert Edge Brew Pub when they saw a man coming in from the west parking lot. The man, wearing a dark trench coat, was carrying a long rifle or shotgun.

They yelled, "There's a man with a gun!" A few seconds later they heard about 12 rounds.

Mason and Barta, who are registered nurses, went to assist the victim, a younger man who had suffered a superficial gunshot wound to the right temple and ear.

Though the boy was clearly in shock, the couple said, he told them that he saw his father go down.

A woman on the lower level of the mall, near the Black Chandelier store, said she saw a shot and looked up upstairs and saw the gunman. He had a long dark coat, dark brown hair and was carrying a rifle or shotgun, she said.

Clifton Black, 26, and Melinda Gurr, 21, of Salt Lake City, heard the shots as they hunkered down in the back of the Black Chandelier, a clothing store in the Trolley Square mall.

A clerk turned off the lights of the store and locked the front doors. The clerk, Black and Gurr then hid until the gunfire stopped.

The group then ventured to the front window, where they caught the eye of a sheriff's deputy who was carrying a shotgun.

The officer shouted, "Two civilians," and told them to walk to the exits with their hands over their heads, Black said.

On their way out of the mall, they saw a "heap of bodies" in one of the stores, Black said. The injured people were being treated by paramedics, he said. They saw at least one other man on the ground while leaving the mall, he said.

Brad Merrill was outside the Ol' Spaghetti Factory on the mezzanine when he heard a loud noise and the sound of glass breaking.

"All of a sudden, someone barged into the mall with a big shotgun," Merrill said. He was holding it in one hand, barrel up.

Merrill grabbed his young son and ran outside the mall, becoming separated from his wife and three other children.

He heard as many as two-dozen shots fired and called 911 on his cell phone. He called his wife and learned they were hiding inside a storage room inside the Sharper Image. They got out about 7:50 p.m.

Marie Smith, an employee at Bath and Body Works, said she saw the gunman running in front of her store with what appeared to be a rifle. She ducked behind the counter and saw him shoot a woman in her mid-20s.

"She screamed as she was coming around the corner and he shot her. I didn't hear him say anything to her at all," Smith said.

Sgt. Blaine Clifford of the Ogden Police Department confirmed that one of the city's patrol division officers was involved in the shooting.

The off-duty officer happened to be in the mall at the time, Clifford said. He declined to name the officer or disclose the extent of his involvement in the shooting.

However, Clifford said, the Ogden officer was "not just a witness."

"As far as who did what to whom, I don't know." The Ogden officer was uninjured, Clifford said.

Two shooting victims were taken to University Hospital. Both suffered gunshot wounds and were in critical condition, according to Chris Nelson, hospital spokesman.

One, a 50-year-old male, was being operated on. The other, a 16-year-old male, was being evaluated in radiology.

The emergency room was in lockdown, with security guards allowing only medical personnel, family members of the victims and new patients inside.

They don't expect any more patients tonight, Nelson said.

Other victims may have been taken to Salt Lake Regional Medical Center and LDS Hospital, Nelson said. Police radio reports said two victims had been taken to LDS Hospital at 8:30 p.m.

At a press conference around 8:25 p.m., police shed a little light on what happened at the mall, starting with an optimistic note regarding the suspected gunman:

"He is no longer a threat," said Robin Snyder, public information officer with the Salt Lake City Police Department.

Beyond that, details were sketchy. Snyder said police didn't know who the suspect was or what his motive was.

She said it appeared to be a random shooting not directed at anyone in particular, and the gunman ranged through a large part of the mall.

Snyder confirmed that there were "several victims."

By 9 p.m., the entire mall had been declared a crime scene, and police were still receiving calls for help from inside the mall.

"We've got a lot of scared people still inside," Snyder said.