AUBURN HILLS, Mich. – A 20-year-old man died Saturday afternoon after a shooting inside the food court at Great Lakes Crossing Outlets. His family has identified him as KeShawn Emery, who went by NBA Key.
Several members of Emery’s family spoke to Local 4 on Saturday evening. They say he was at the food court with his cousin just before 5:30 p.m. when gunfire began.
“I was sitting at the table eating my food and the next thing I heard was ‘boom’ and then another ‘boom’ - I said, ‘that’s not fireworks, that’s gunshots - so I look around at the mall and everyone just scatters out,” Demond Clayton said.
Clayton was sitting down to eat inside the food court on Saturday evening.
“I calmly get underneath the table and I realize after I hear the echo, the bullets are already fired. So, I get up, I have on my Meta glasses as you see right here and I started recording and it was just chaos everywhere, people just scattered. The mall cleared out in less than 15 seconds,” Clayton said.
Auburn Hills police say their officers were already inside the mall when they got reports of gunfire.
Officers got to the food court and found 20-year-old KeShawn Emery, who is from Pontiac, dead and a 19-year-old woman injured. She is expected to be ok.
“Also located the shooter who was still on scene. He was cooperative with the officers and taken into custody immediately,” Scott McGraw, Deputy Chief of Police for Auburn Hills Police Department, said.
They say he is a 22-year-old man from Detroit.
“The shooter and the deceased male were involved in an altercation earlier today,” McGraw said.
Police say that altercation happened inside one of the mall’s bathrooms.
“They ran into each other again inside the food court,” McGraw said.
Police say the alleged shooter told them he was jumped by the man who died and another unknown man before the shots were fired.
“It was actually a ‘fight or flight’ moment and people got out of there and it was very heartbreaking,” Clayton said. “In the video, you see a mom drop her baby’s bottle and everything. She’s just panicking to get out of there. I picked it up to give it to her and she walks out and she walked out of the way and the mall was just completely empty.”
The mall remained closed the rest of Saturday as police investigated.
The prosecutor will make any charging decisions and police ask anyone with information to reach out to them directly.