they saw buses of s.w.a.t. teams coming in, and just clearing the place out. >> just for people who are just

now joining us, i want to recap for them what the press conference said just a few minutes ago. coming out live out of columbia maryland, the county executive ken olman said three are dead, and they're treating it as an active crime scene and will treat it as an active crime scene for some time. he called it a well run operation tactically with a lot of cooperation from state officials. then bill mcmahon spoke to the press. he said at 11:15 the police received calls that shots had been fired. he said it occurred at an upper level store. he did not say which store that was but he would be coming back for another press conference. he believes that one of the deceased was the shooter, and the officials are inside now clearing the mall as garon

mentioned. a lot of reporters are wondering if this is a domestic dispute or is it something that was completely random in an unexpected area. he was confident that it was a single shooter. let's take a listen to what they had to say. >> at is 1:15, they received a number of calls of shots fired at the columbia mall. we had officers quickly get into the area, and we were able to identify three victims at the columbia mall. one of those victims appears to be the shooter. we do not have an identity for the shooter yet. we do not have a motive for the shooting. we're still trying to secure the mall to make sure again that there is nobody else injured,

and then we're getting our investigators into that crime scene to start doing their work which will enable me to answer some of those many questions that you have that frankly i just can't answer right now because i don't have the information. >> that was police chief bill mcmahon. just before he came to speak to the press county executive kennalmakenallman spoke. let's hear what he had to say. >> we have three confirmed fatalities. we want to send our thoughts and prayers to the family members and loved ones of the victims. all the shoppers, all those who work here at the mall this has been a tremendously trying few hours. and we've seen a lot of patience. this is an active crime scene. it will be an activity crime scene for some time. >> we spoke to a woman named shannon who has worked at the

mall for ten years, she said she never expected something like this to happen. garon, you said that you've lived in the area for ten years. can you give us an idea of what area this mall is in. is it a high crime rate area or a suburban mall where you wouldn't expect something like this to happen. >> it's a suburban mall, it's not something that has ever happened here before. it's considered a nice place to live with some of the best schools in the area. this is, you know, a community where it has a lot of different penal from different backgrounds working in washington, d.c. and a lot of people commute to this area. it's a small community really. >> joining us on the phone is michael doren. security expert and author of the book "staying alive: how to stay alive in deadly encounters." how do you survive a deadly

encounter when you really don't know what's happening. >> first you have to be very open to the possibility and be prepared to accept what you see around you. i was doing a security assessment in nairobi last week that was related to the mall attack at westgate mall. one of the people who were fall with what happened, and talking about in this case an obvious shooting. a lot of people kept shopping and going down the escalators, people just looked at each other, they just student excep t that they'll be open to the possibility. as you said from some of your

statements in the coverage earlier there were people who reacted very quickly to get themselves to safety and others to safety. that is key whether it's a fire, tornado or someone with a weapon. >> how does someone really prepare for a situation like this? >> well, it's called similar placing. it's very well-grounded and researched. it's the way that pilots train, police officers, soldiers. you don't dwell on it. if you're in a theater, what would i do if someone came in this door and open fired. i would go in this direction. when you're in a restaurant you just make a habit of knowing where th the ex-identities on. the more you mentally simulate the more likely you are to survive. there have been studies of survivors of plane crashes, and

other events those who read the brochure on the airplane are more likely to handle themselves during a disaster than those who don't read the brochure. i've seen a dozen attacks as a police officer-- >> you say you've survived more than a dozen? >> oh, yes, i've bean attacked with a bayonet, a box-cutter, like most police officers. i applied what i'm talking about, i applieed to the june elsjungals.we know how to prepae mentally and we know what works. mental simulation is a very powerful survival tool.

the mind--the human mind is the most powerful survival mechanism known to man. and what people miss when they see tragic situations is how many people do survive. we may have mass casualty attacks, it's amazing how many situations occur where people think properly, people don't die. an example, my home state of georgia, over 20 years ago an opportunity brought a live mortar round that he thought was not real. he dropped it in a room of 12 children. the principal and teachers that have school saved every child because of their ability to think. they had never seen an example of that for their survival. this was in a rural town where nobody thought anything like this would happen. but the school principal and

staff were prepared to the point that their brains would get into gear quickly. and everyone survived. >> the human mind is powerful in the survival mechanism. what are some of the patterns you've seen across your own situations and even among some of the crimes we've seen wrap up across the country. what are some of the patterns that we've seen. >> there is research that we'v e have going back 20 years. designing computers to create battle designs to practice decisions. but they found that the commander makes decisions faster than any computer.

noticing someone is dangerous in the mall and reacting before they open fire. hearing the sound of gunfire, the well prepared brain is amazing fast. it's much faster than my computer at making those kinds of decisions. i was trying to in the 1980s on techniques of this type. it goes back this far. and i cried a woman attacking me with a bayonett. >> a woman attacked you with a bayonett. >> i had been called out on a call, and this woman wanted to kill her boyfriend who was caught cheating on her. she was going to stab me so she could kill him. but with the training i had i was able to react to the

situation before i could even think about what was haling. i had been trained to look for patterns of behavior that weren't right. >> how would you flesh that out. in this case it's what didn't fit. the two were having a domestic argument. she should have been talking to the context of the situation. she was not. she was walking towards the individual that she was trying to attack and myself, but she was looking at me instead of him. that was abnormal. she's angry at him so why is she looking at me? she's ready to attack a police officer who has a gun an she's very focused on what those things were. but at the time i could not tell you, i just reacted. >> you were able to see what was about to go down. >> the brain is good at something called pattern matching recognition.

>> pattern matching recognition. >> yes, they were able to lower the rate of death of cardiac patient. they say if a patient is not acting right we want to you alert a rapid response team. if you have physical symptoms like blood pressure and pulse, they want you to call the team. but if a patient doesn't act like an asian, and their medical condition alerts the team, then the death rate dropped by half. they didn't really know. the nurses are able to stop lethal types of infections because the nurses can pick up

differences in skin color and other things that he's willing to someone this has been around for many years, and this is how personal special military trying to swap personnel. when you see something that is not right you don't hit them with a baseball bat, but you don't dismiss them, either. there have been thousands of shootings that were invited that made the difference. kenneth bronson made the shooting of a school bus in georgia years ago. what he was in thed this with e noticed they were not getting on the bus the way they should ha have. >> michael, thank you so much. please stay with us. i want to come back to you later

on in the program. i spoke to a woman made shannon. she works at one of the stores inside the mall. this is how she described the scene. >> i first noticed a lot of panic going on, people didn't know what was going on so the people who were running by, they were saying get out of the mall. get out of the mall. they couldn't find the shooter and they were hiding in the store not knowing where he is. that was about-- >> they were running? >> that was a little after 11:00 i think. and i just evacuated the mall about ten minutes ago. >> you just evacuated ten minute ago? >> yes. >> so shannon, what was going through your mind as you saw people running, and cowering for cover? >> well, first you don't know what's going on. like i said, nobody told us.

at the other end of the mall we had no clues what was going on. but after that after i found out it was complete panic. one of my coworkers in the mall they have a free standing stand that sits close to the food court, and he saw the shooter and said he saw him run through the mall with a gun. >> he said he saw a guy running through the mall with a gun? >> yes. >> in columbus, maryland, three people are confirmed dead from a shooting at a mall. continuing coverage when al jazeera america continues.

>> evey sunday night, join us for exclusive, revealing, and suprizing talks with the most interesting people of our time. >> our journalists are the best journalists in the world. >> she's the first female executive editor of the new york times. >> there's no question that the editorial stance is a liberal point of view. >> the head of the paper of record goes on the record with talk to al jazeera. only on al jazeera america. >> welcome to al jazeera america. live from new york city. i'm morgan radford. the latest from maryland. there were shots fired at the food court of a mall. one of the deceased is lying

near his gun. the police tweeted the location was believed to be secure. helicopters and emergency vehicle are now on the scene. here is an eyewitness with his account of the shooting. >> i was in sears looking around, and i heard a bang. i thought, man, that sounds like a gunshot. then i heard people running and screaming and i heard it again. it was just, boom, boom, boom, and people started screaming and running. it was just complete madness. i definitely heard four or five gunshots. people were running around, and it was just crazy. i got out as quick as i could. >> that was witness anthony madeall said he was there. now we go to garon hayes from

baltimore, maryland. garon, you were there from almost the beginning. do we know how many shoppers were inside? >> we don't, but you can imagine there were quite a few people. we went to the movie theater and saw there were 75 people there. they say they were informed to go here, and they're waiting for loved ones to come pick them up, and we've seen eight school buses and public transit lining up. we saw people being escorted from bargain lots to get their cars. people are asking does anybody here park at nordstrom parking lot? and 20 people followed the police out this their cars. they're going one by up, getting people out of here, and clearing the scene. >> garon, what are authorities telling people to do now? are they still treating this as an active scene with an active

shooter? >> they said they believe this is all over but they know a lot of people have taken shelter inside. they do what they're told to hunker down and take shelter. we under that there are a lot of people afraid. thethey were going store by stoe looking for people and also if there was another person actively in the mall. but they believe this is over. >> okay, they believe this is over first we heard from county executive ken allman. let's listen to what he has to say. >> we have three confirmed fatalities so we want to send our thoughts and prayers to the family members of the loved one

of the victims, the family members of the victims. this has been a tremendously trying few hours, and we've seen a lot of patience. we ask that people continue to bear with us. this is an active crime scene. it is going to be an active crime scene for some time. >> you heard county executive ken allman say this is an active scene and it will be for quite some time. thee peoplthree people are deadw after allman spoke with the press, police chief came on. >> at 11:15 this morning our 911 center received a number of calls for shots fired. we had officers quickly get into the area, and we were able to identify three victims at an upper level store in the columbia mall. one of those victims appears to

be the shooter. we do not have the identify of the victims yet. we do not have a motive for the shooting. again, this is 2 hours 15 minutes into the scene. we're still trying to secure the mall to make sure again that there is nobody else injured. then we're getting our investigators into that crime season to do their work which will enable me to answer many of the questions that you have that i frankly can't answer right now because i don't have the information. >> that is the police chief reporting that shots have been fired and there is one more injury that has been reported, a shotgun wound to the foot. we'll be back shortly after this break and give you all the news on this late breaking situation.

in the village the deputy mayor remembers him

>> welcome back to al jazeera america. i'm morgan radford coming to you live from new york city. the very latest develops on the

breaking news story out of columbia, maryland, where authorities say they received a call an hour after the mall opened this morning. witnesses say they heard shots fired near the food court on the upper level of the mall. they wouldn't say specifically which store was. one of the deceased was lying near the gun and ammunition. they're not sure but they think he might be the shooter. the location is believed to be secure. helicopters and vehicles are on the scene. here is another eyewitness of the account. >> we werwe heard several gunsh. we just heard gunshots, and this lady came into the store and said there is a guy with a gun. there are several different gunshots, me and my friend, we were already in the store, we just ran i in the backroom, and

then we were like crying, we were just scared out of our minds because our thought was we were going to get shot, and then we heard a lot of people screaming and running, and it was just very scary moment. >> that was loner stapleton who was inside the mall when the shooting occurred. right now garon hayes joins us live on the phone from baltimore, maryland. do we know how many workers and shoppers were inside of the mall at the time of the building? >> we don't. obviously it is a saturday, when you're looking for something to do and get the kids out of the house. when i came the parking lot was pretty full, and since then i've seen a pretty packed crowd here. >> can you give us an idea where exactly is this mall located? is an area that generally sees a

lot of crime or is it upscale area. >> it's located between washington, d.c. and baltimore. kind of near where you see the nsa ford immediate area. a lot of good schools here. considered one of the best communities in the area to live in, actually. this is something that you would never expect to happen here. >> we understand those who were inside the malibu didn't see the shooter were evacuated. >> yes, i went to a movie theater, they basically said that they were told to stay there. there are people who work in the mall and they had keys to certain rooms, and they're waiting for her to open up doors. you know, a lot of people still waiting for loved ones to pick them up at the mall.

>> garon hayes, it's been called an incredibly well run operation in terms of response. i'm morgan radford. we have more coverage coming up. children once sacrificed their childhoods, even their lives, working in american mills, mines and factories. the us rooted out child labor practices 75 years ago. but today, us agriculture remains a stronghold for child labor. >> i know most kids come out here to help their parents out, get the money to pay the bills. >> it's just another day on the fields of america. >> hi, can you tell me your name? >> gabriella. workers like gabriella are not uncommon. >> how