Police in Fairfield, California, on Saturday named the woman killed when gunfire erupted inside a Spirit Halloween store on the eve of Halloween. Constance Hages, 31, died in the shooting at the Solano Town Center mall on Friday night, Fairfield police said, according to KCRA and CBS News. Family members told detectives that Hages carried a child at the time of her death, and police said they still need to confirm that after an examination by the Solano County coroner, CBS News reports. Gunfire wounded six other people, police said, according to the same reports.
Officers responded to the store at about 8:30 p.m. PT on Friday, Oct. 30, according to KCRA and CBS Sacramento. Fairfield Police Chief Dan Marshall said late Friday that one victim died at the scene and three others suffered critical injuries, adding that the public faced no ongoing threat, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims of this heartbreaking incident,” Marshall said at a news conference, according to NBC News, adding that detectives remained “diligently working to identify the suspect or suspects responsible for this horrific shooting.”
Watch: the scene outside the mall on Friday night, via @abc7newsbayarea on X
Viewer note: these clips cover a fatal shooting. The stills this desk viewed show emergency lights, police vehicles and the store front, with no injured people visible. If an embed does not load, it shows as a plain link to the original post.
View the @abc7newsbayarea post on X about the Fairfield shooting
Watch: officers outside the store, via @JoshBreslowTV (LiveNOW from FOX) on X
View the @JoshBreslowTV post on X about the Fairfield shooting
By Saturday morning the department had narrowed its account. “Based on preliminary information obtained during the investigation, the shooting is believed to have stemmed from a targeted incident involving one suspect inside the Spirit Halloween store,” the department wrote in a Facebook statement, shown in a screenshot that Anthony Volkar posted on X. “Detectives continue to actively investigate this case, reviewing video footage and other evidence to identify the individual responsible for this heinous act of violence. Currently, we are not releasing additional details about the incident.” Police had not released a description of the shooter or a possible motive, the Chronicle reports, and police had detained no one, according to KCRA.
Later on Saturday, police released ages for the wounded, who range from 16 to 43. According to KCRA, a 16-year-old boy and men aged 19, 32 and 23 remained hospitalized in critical but stable condition, while a 19-year-old man and a 43-year-old man went home after treatment for gunshot wounds. CBS News describes the same four hospitalized victims a little differently: it lists the 16-, 19- and 32-year-olds as in critical condition and the 23-year-old as critical but stable. This desk could not read the department’s newest statement directly and reports both versions.
Witnesses describe a sudden stampede inside the costume store. Miena Davis told KCRA that she heard a series of popping sounds shortly after she walked in. “Everything froze and was like, ‘What was that?’” Davis said. “And then another round of the same sound went off and then a bunch of shoppers started running.” She added: “It was immediate panic. You heard a mom crying out for their child. And it just was so surreal.” The Chronicle, which spells her first name Meina and says she works at a shoe store in the mall, reports that she and a coworker ducked under the store’s rear security fence and hid in another shop for about an hour.
Javier Espinoza and his girlfriend, Alicia Reyes, had come to shop for a Shrek-themed Halloween party, the Chronicle reports. Espinoza told the paper that he first wondered whether someone had set off fireworks. “Then we started hearing them inside the store,” he recalled. “Oh no, that’s not good.” The pair and perhaps a dozen other shoppers hid near a security fence at the back of the store, then slid their hands underneath it and levered it upward until they could roll under and run out through the mall, according to the Chronicle. A stranger outside gave them a ride, the paper reports. David Bernal told KCRA, in remarks cited by NBC News, that his wife escaped through an emergency exit and heard “five big bangs, big ones, like loud.”
Several agencies joined the response. FBI Sacramento deployed its Evidence Response Team to help Fairfield police, and Suisun City police and the California Highway Patrol also responded, KCRA reports. Suisun City Mayor Alma Hernandez said her city’s officers helped with the search before Fairfield released them, according to the Chronicle. In its Saturday statement, the Fairfield department thanked “the numerous mutual aid agencies that responded and assisted our officers in securing the area following the shooting,” according to the screenshot posted on X.
The shooting came the night before Halloween. Solano Town Center canceled its Mall-O-Ween trick-or-treating event but planned to stay open on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., KCRA reports. Spirit Halloween told CBS Sacramento that the Fairfield store will stay closed until further notice and that the company continues to cooperate with the investigation. “We recognize the concern and uncertainty this incident has created throughout our community, particularly with the many Halloween events and celebrations planned for today,” Fairfield police said on Saturday, according to CBS Sacramento and the Chronicle. “We understand that an incident of this nature is frightening and deeply unsettling. We encourage everyone to remain vigilant, look out for one another, and report any suspicious activity.”
Rep. John Garamendi, a Democrat who represents Fairfield, expressed shock at the shooting in a statement on Saturday, the Chronicle reports. “My team and I are aware of and are monitoring the horrific tragedy in the heart of Fairfield,” he said. “What should have been a weekend of celebration has turned into a tragedy,” he said, according to the paper. “I thank local and federal law enforcement for their swift response and service as they continue searching for the suspect.”
Hours earlier, a separate shooting inside a Spirit Halloween store in Madison Heights, Michigan, killed a 21-year-old Detroit man, according to NBC News and the Chronicle. Police there took another 21-year-old man into custody, the Chronicle reports, and witnesses said that shooting followed a brief argument between the two men. No source reviewed by this desk links the two cases.
Fairfield police ask anyone with information to call the department at 707-428-7600 or to email 1030mall@fairfield.ca.gov, according to KCRA and the Chronicle. A post by Volkar, a public information officer for the Yolo County Office of Education, repeated the same request on Saturday alongside a photo of officers outside the store.