Emergency personnel responded Wednesday evening to the Steeplegate Mall in Concord where two people were killed in a double shooting, authorities said.
Police and fire officials said they received a report of two people shot in the parking lot of the mall on Loudon Road at roughly 7:45 p.m.
An adult male and an adult female were killed, according to New Hampshire Attorney General Gordon MacDonald and Concord Police Chief Brad Osgood. One victim was initially taken by ambulance to Concord Hospital, police and fire officials at the scene said.
Concord Police Lt. Sean Ford said the incident appears to be isolated and that there is no greater threat to the public.
A witness at the scene said he was leaving the Zoo Health Club at the mall when he heard what sounded like two gun shots. He drove around the parking lot and saw a man slumped against a car who appeared to be dead with no vital signs. Nearby, a woman was on the ground who still had a pulse. He said both appeared to have gun shot wounds to the head.
He and other bystanders called 911.
Multiple police responded and cordoned off the area on the east side of the mall as they investigated.
The scene was a jumbled mess of lights, cars, police officers and gym goers. Some of the gym’s patrons sat on a nearby sidewalk, watching and waiting for their cars to be released from the crime scene. Others hung out near the front entrance. Some stayed in the gym, continuing to work out. The crime scene tape covered a wide area, several rows deep of the parking lot. In the middle, between cars, one body was covered by a white sheet.
Hatbox Theatre, which is located in the mall, reported on social media just before 9 p.m. that two production companies were rehearsing in the theater at the time of the shooting but that everyone there is safe.
“Everyone associated with our end of the mall is safe and secure and have resumed normal operations,” the theater wrote on its Facebook page.
The identities of the two individuals were being withheld until next of kin have been notified, authorities said. Autopsies have not yet been scheduled.
This story will be updated throughout the day at concordmonitor.com.