Puyallup police arrested two teenagers with guns at the South Hill Mall on Sunday afternoon, the department announced.
According to police, officers were called to the mall around 2:10 p.m. for reports of two males wearing full masks carrying a shotgun in the parking lot of the mall’s movie theater.
An off-duty Air Marshal supervisor who was at the mall saw two Black males with masks posing and making what they thought to be “gang hand-signs” while taking selfies near a car parked in the parking lot, according to police.
One of the males was holding the shotgun and appeared to put it in a nearby bush. The two then entered the mall as the Air Marshal supervisor followed them while on the phone with police.
When Puyallup police officers arrived, the males — a 15-year-old from Tacoma and a 17-year-old from Spanaway — ran away but were caught across from the movie theater. Police said the shotgun had been put back into the car the teens were associated with, but the 17-year-old did have a semi-automatic Glock handgun in his waistband.
The car was impounded for a search warrant and both teens were booked into Remann Hall on two counts of juvenile possession of a firearm and obstructing law enforcement.
©2023 Cox Media Group