The Garden State Plaza Mall in Paramus, N.J. was emptied on Saturday evening after a panic about shots being fired, but police believed the panic was sparked by a car fire.
According to Paramus police Chief Kenneth Ehrenberg At around 8:09 p.m. on Saturday, a car caught fire outside the Macy’s store in the mall so as a result, smoke started entering the mall in the area, he said.
At some point, police received calls from people saying they heard loud noises that resembled the shots, Ehrenberg said. The sounds were believed to be of the car bursting into flames, but shoppers thought some gunmen started shooting .
“It sounded like a gunshot,” one man said. “They can’t tell me it wasn’t.”
But there was never any concrete evidence of a person shooting, police said.
“Nobody saw any gunman and nobody saw anybody shooting anything,” he said.
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