Suspected Garden State Plaza Mall Gunman Found Dead: Prosecutor
Police found the body of 20-year-old Richard Shoop in a long-term storage area behind a construction site at the Westfield Garden State Plaza Mall in Paramus, N.J., about 3:20 a.m., Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli said. The discovery came just hours after Shoop, wearing all black and a motorcycle helmet, fired six rounds from a Sig Sauer rifle modified to look like an AK-47 in the first floor of the mall, New Jersey’s largest, about 10 minutes before it closed Monday night.
No one was injured in the gunfire. Molinelli said it didn’t appear that Shoop, who fired bullets that hit an elevator, escalator and several store facades, ever intended to hurt anyone in the mall.
“I don’t know as I stand here whether his motive was to injure anyone,” Molinelli said. “I do not believe that Mr. Shop thought he was going to come out of here alive.