On Thanksgiving night, a shooting erupted in an Alabama mall. In the melee, a 12-year-old girl was injured and police killed an armed security guard.
Emantic "EJ" Bradford Jr., 21, was working security at the The Riverchase Galleria, Alabama’s largest mall, on Thanksgiving night when two men began to fight on the shopping center’s second floor around 10 p.m.
When police responded, they fired upon Bradford, whom they believed was the perpetrator. Bradford, who left the Army to care for his father as he undergoes treatment for cancer, died on the scene. The officer who shot Bradford has since been placed on administrative leave. His name has not been released.
The police department has issued multiple accounts of the events and Bradford's shooting, initially calling the Hoover officer a hero for quickly putting down the suspected shooter. But as more information emerged, it became apparent the actual shooter was still at large, and the police officer had killed the wrong man, NPR reports.
The Hoover PD acknowledged they had killed the wrong individual the following day, indicating the suspect was still at large. The department expressed regret, and indicated that Bradford, "was fleeing the shooting scene while brandishing a handgun" when an officer shot him in a corridor outside the JC Penney store, as told by The Washington Post.