Teenage boy, 16, arrested for murder after Nebraska mall shooting

Makhi Woolridge-Jones has been charged with first-degree murder following the shooting in Omaha on Saturday

Mall Gunfire (Omaha World-Herald)

Police have arrested a 16-year-old boy suspected in a shooting at a Nebraska mall that left one man dead and a woman injured, law enforcement officials said on Sunday.

Makhi Woolridge-Jones was arrested and charged with first-degree murder following the shooting on Saturday at the Westroads Mall in Omaha.

Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine said that Mr Woolridge-Jones will be charged as an adult, 3 News Now reported.

Brandon Woolridge-Jones, 18, has also been arrested on a charge of being an accessory to the shooting. Police did not describe the relationship between the two young men.

A third man, whose name was not released, was identified as a person of interest in the shooting.

Shoppers were sent running for cover after gunshots rang out near a JCPenney store at the mall around noon local time on Saturday. Security footage showed two suspects fleeing the scene.

Police said that Trequez Swift, 21, was shot and later died of his injuries at Bergan Mercy Hospital.

A 22-year-old woman, Ja’Keya Veland, was wounded in the leg during the shooting and transported to a local hospital. Her injuries were not life-threatening, police said.

An investigation into the circumstances of the shooting is ongoing. Authorities described it as an isolated incident and not a random attack.

The shooting comes a month after Omaha Police Officer Jeffrey Wittstruck was shot four times by a 21-year-old man accused of shoplifting T-shirts from JCPenney. Mr Wittstruck survived the shooting on 12 March.

In 2007, a gunman killed eight people and himself inside the Von Maur department store at Westroads.

The Associated Press contributed to this report