LOS ANGELES_A man shot and killed his ex-wife and then shot himself in a murder and attempted suicide Saturday afternoon at the Oaks mall in Thousand Oaks, authorities said.
Authorities received a call around 2:15 p.m. about shots fired inside a stationery store called the Paper Source, said Sgt. Eric Buschow of the Ventura County Sheriff's Office.
Deputies found the 30-year-old Thousand Oaks woman dead of an apparent gunshot wound and her 33-year-old ex-husband with life-threatening injuries, authorities said. The man, a Los Angeles resident, was transported to a local hospital, where he remains in critical condition.
Buschow said the couple's children have been located and are uninjured.
Patrons were evacuated from the popular suburban shopping center and advised to go to Fire Station 30 across the street. Buschow said the indoor portions of the mall, on the northwest and east sides, have been reopened but the open-air portion, where the Paper Source is located, remains closed amid the investigation.
Leo Juarez, who works at a body jewelry store called Mystic Visions, said he heard helicopters and watched as people evacuated before doing so himself.
"Not sure what's going on," he said. "We heard commotion, people running to the opposite end of the mall yelling, 'Shooter!'"
Video posted on Twitter by Anthony A. Angelini showed armed sheriff's deputies outside one of the mall exits with guns drawn as visitors were directed out of the building.
Angelini, a 23-year-old Thousand Oaks resident, said he and his girlfriend were in the outdoor section in the middle of the mall when he saw a crowd of at least 100 people running toward him.
At first, he thought it was a flash mob. But then he heard a teenage girl say, "Do you think we're going to live through this?"
Angelini's instinct was to flee. He and his girlfriend joined the group, running as fast as they could to the J.C. Penney store at one end of the mall.
An alarm went off when they got to the store. A worker told them to hide in a stock room. But they spotted an emergency exit and became some of the first patrons to make it outside.
"I said, 'I'm not just going to be sitting ducks hiding behind clothing racks,'" he said.
Just as they got outside, Angelini saw authorities pull up and heard them call over the scanner for all units to respond.
Two deputies surrounded the doors with assault rifles, he said, while others set up a perimeter. People stood around, confused. One woman frantically searched for her child, while strangers tried to comfort her.
Angelini called his mother just after he made it outside, at 2:27 p.m., to tell her he was OK. A couple minutes later, he watched another few dozen people stream outside.
At that point, a handful of deputies ran inside, he said. Around 4 p.m., Angelini was still at the mall, waiting to retrieve his car at the other end.
"I'm still shaking," he said.
