Police said they received 911 calls at around 2:20 pm, saying that a woman had been shot near the Macy's entrance on the west side of the mall.
Cobb Country Police Sgt. Dana Pierce said that when the officers arrived at the scene, they found a woman who had been shot, lying on the parking lot grounds. The woman's identity and condition are still unknown.
Pierce said that witnesses gave the information to investigators that a man and the victim were involved in an argument just before the shooting occurred. Shots were fired moments after the altercation. A bystander tried to help the woman but the shooter fired at the bystander, then shot the woman again. The bystander was not injured. The bullet that missed the bystander hit a wall of a nearby department store.
Investigators said that the shooter calmly climbed into the passenger side of a white van with a ladder rack on the top, and a long, white pipe attached to the rack.
Pierce said that they have the license plate of the van. It is still unclear whether the suspect was a passenger or if he moved to the driver's seat.
The suspect is described as a heavyset man in his 50s. He has short hair and was last seen wearing glasses, a gray shirt and a blue hat.
The Cobb County Police Department is trying to secure the area where the shooting reportedly occurred, the Associated Press reported.
Today's shooting was the second in three days outside a Cobb County mall, though the two incidents are not related. Early Saturday, police were called to a roadway near Town Center Mall, where a security guard was shot to death. His alleged shooter later died of a self-inflicted gunshot, according to police
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