CORONA DEL MAR TODAY

Suspected Fashion Island Gunman in Custody; No Shooting Victims; Witness Said “He Was Trying to Scare Us”

UPDATED

Newport Beach police arrested a man in the Macy’s parking lot at Fashion Island just after 4:30 p.m. today after witnesses said he fired at least 18 shots in the air.

Police have identified the shooting suspect at Marcos Sarinana Gurrola, 42, of Garden Grove. He is suspected of firing at least 50 shots, although no one was struck by gunfire, authorities said.

Several witnesses saw the man and his gun as they parked and were walking toward the shopping center.

“It looked like he was aiming up,” said an Orange County woman who asked to be identified by her first name, Tammy. “He was looking at us. He was trying to scare us.”

Tammy and three friends had arrived at Fashion Island about 4:30 p.m. and parked in the lot across from the Big Island movie theater. They were walking toward Macy’s when they heard a popping noise, looked back and saw a man in a baseball cap aiming a gun in the air. The man was standing near the hedges at the end of the lot, they said. Police said he apparently owned a white Honda parked in the lot.

“I knew it was a gun,” said a woman who identified herself as Susan. “I heard nine rounds, a pause, and nine more rounds. I called 911 and ran.”

“We ran to Macy’s,” Tammy said. They were screaming that there was a shooter in the parking lot.

Laby Shayan of Newport Beach said she saw the man just after she parked her car.

“He was standing there, looking down, with a gun at his side,” she said. “I thought, ‘Is this a gun or a toy, probably a toy.’ Then he put the gun in the air. Five shots I heard.”

Newport Beach Police Department bicycle officers, who were on routine holiday patrol of the center, quickly took the man into custody without incident, said Kathy Lowe, a police spokeswoman. She did not know the motive for the shooting, she said, nor did she release information about the gun.

No one was injured by gunfire, she said, but one woman was injured while running for safety.

Throughout Fashion Island, shoppers were herded into dressing rooms and restrooms.

Julie Means of Corona del Mar was at Dick’s Sporting Goods and said that mall security had ordered a lockdown, according to an announcement over a loudspeaker.

“They just locked the doors and would not let us leave,” she said in a telephone interview. “It was fairly calm. I think people were in shock and trying to stay back from the doorways.”

Dena Nassef of Orange was shopping with family members, walking toward Macy’s, when a wave of people began running toward them.

“They were running and screaming,” Nassef said. “They were hysterical. We turned around and ran, too.”

Her nephew, Robert Escatel, 11 of Huntington Beach, said he was thinking about Friday’s shootings in Connecticut as he ran to safety.

“I was freaking out,” he said. “I’ve never been in a situation this big. I felt really shaky and nervous.”

As they ran to find shelter in Nordstrom, they said, other shoppers who didn’t know what was happening were laughing at them. Other shoppers reported on Facebook and Twitter that they were hiding in restrooms at Barnes and Noble.

Kristine Simon of Corona del Mar was shopping in Nordstrom when the shooting occurred. At first, she said, store employees told everyone to leave. When they realized the shooter was outside, they had everyone return inside and put down metal security doors. Simon and her daughter huddled in a dressing room with about 25 other people. Some people were crying, she said, and one little girl asked, “What if we’re stuck in here on Christmas?”

For about an hour after the incident, Macy’s was closed, and police and a sheriff’s deputy stood nearby. The entire center was not officially on lockdown during the incident, Lowe said. People are now leaving the center and can be overheard saying they were not permitted to leave for two hours.

Sections of the center’s parking lot remained cordoned off by crime tape.

The shooting was captured on video and posted several times on YouTube; click here to see.

Corona del Mar Today will update this story as information becomes available.

Bottom photo courtesy of KCAL.