15-year-old accused of mass shooting in Wisconsin mall to face charges

Boy’s legal team claims shooting began after a fight broke out between the teen’s friend and another group of people

A 15-year-old will face charges for a mass shooting in a Wisconsin mall that injured eight people.  

No one was killed in the shooting.

The teen is currently being held in juvenile detention. There are no plans to release him to his parents.  

The boy is accused of shooting up a crowded mall in the suburb of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin on Friday. Court Commissioner JC Moore denied a request from the teen's defense team on Tuesday to release him to house arrest with GPS monitoring.  

Mr Moore called the shooting incident an "incredibly dangerous series of events."

"This was a shooting in a crowded mall a week before the start of the holiday shopping season. Eight people were shot because of some altercation" Mr Moore said. "I can't imagine a more dangerous set of circumstances."

The teen faces eight felony counts of first-degree reckless injury, and one misdemeanor count of processing a firearm while under 18, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.  

According to a petition for juvenile delinquency introduced by the teen's attorney, the alleged shooter and his friend were in a mall on Friday when his friend got into a confrontation with a group of people on an escalator.  

The petition claims the confrontation escalated into a physical fight between the friend and at least one member of the other group. Witnesses at the scene said the alleged shooter drew a weapon and - standing back away from the central confrontation - began shooting.  

The teen was arrested on Sunday after allegedly fleeing the shooting in a car with Illinois licence plates. He was allegedly found with a bag containing the handgun used in the shooting.  

Police reported that two others were arrested in connection with the incident but their roles have not yet been divulged.