[FreedomCalls]

Your image lightened, and enlarged.

[Abathar]

Thanks, that is exactly what I thought I saw in the original picture. That is NOT the same gun shown on the original article picture.

[norton]

The mall photo is so weird that questions are unavoidable.

If the carbine were not there I'd swear he was drinking a beer.
And, unless I'm fooled by the perspective, what appears to be a long, removable, magazine is too far forward to be in place.

But the mall photo is not an SKS.
The published shots of an SKS really do look like something out of an on line auction - which I wouldn't take as anything amiss unless they stated that it was THE mall weapon.

Odds are huge that even an AK variant was semi-auto in any event.