5 min read
A Friday night run for costumes ended in gunfire, grief and a search for answers in Fairfield.
Gunfire broke out at about 8:30 p.m. inside the Spirit Halloween store at Solano Town Center. Seven people were struck by bullets.
One person died at the scene. Six others were rushed to area hospitals, and three of them remain in critical condition.
Major Takeaways
- Seven people were shot at the Spirit Halloween store at Solano Town Center on Friday night.
- One victim died at the scene, and three of the six wounded remain in critical condition.
- Police have released no suspect description, no motive and no victim names or ages.
- Federal agents have joined Fairfield police as detectives interview witnesses and study mall camera footage.
What Happened Inside the Store
The seasonal store was open and filled with customers when the shots began. Families had come in for costumes and supplies on the final night before Halloween.
Shoppers ran for the parking lots and deeper into the mall as the gunfire echoed through the store. One man said his wife heard roughly seven shots before the people around her fled to safety.
Officers who reached the mall found seven people with gunshot wounds across three locations at the shopping center. Fairfield Police Chief Dan Marshall confirmed the toll at a late night news conference.
Ambulances and fire crews filled the parking lot as officers taped off the storefront. Shaken shoppers were guided away from the scene and into the night.
The store occupies the space once held by Best Buy inside a mall of about 130 stores. The center sits off Travis Boulevard in a city about 47 miles northeast of San Francisco.
A Night of Fear for Families
Teams in tactical gear swept the mall store by store to make sure no shooter remained hidden inside. One sweep entered a movie theater where about a dozen people were watching a horror film.
Caitlin Fry, who was in that theater, described the moment plainly. “Towards the end of the film and all of a sudden a police officer in full SWAT gear came storming in and he had a very large Maglite and he started waving it all over the theater and asked us if anyone came in that had a gun,” she said.
For Black families in Fairfield and across the country, the scene carries a heavy familiarity. A simple errand for a child now comes with a scan of the exits and a quiet hope that the night stays ordinary.
Police said areas outside the mall were not placed on lockdown. The fear, though, traveled home with every family that ran out of that store.
The Search for the Shooter
As of the latest police briefing, the shooter remains at large. Detectives have released no description and have not said whether one person or more than one person fired the shots.
The department called the store a very active crime scene in a written statement. “This is still a very active crime scene,” police said. “Detectives are speaking with witnesses and diligently working to identify the suspect responsible for this horrific shooting.”
Federal help is on the ground as well. “FBI Sacramento is aware of the shooting incident that occurred at a business on Gateway Boulevard in Fairfield, California, and we are deploying our Evidence Response Team to assist the Fairfield Police Department,” the bureau said.
Chief Marshall noted that the mall has cameras. Investigators hope that footage, along with witness accounts, will show who pulled the trigger and how the shooter got away.
What Remains Unknown
Police have not released the names or ages of the seven victims. They have not described any events that led up to the gunfire, and they have not offered a motive.
Beyond the three patients in critical condition, officials gave no detailed updates on the other wounded. Their families now wait in hospital rooms for word that no family should have to wait for.
What is certain is the shape of the loss. One family woke up Saturday to the worst news a family can receive, on a weekend built for children, candy and costumes.
Fairfield sits in Solano County between Sacramento and the Bay Area, a working city where the mall serves as a gathering place for families across the region. On Saturday, that gathering place stands as a crime scene, and a community waits for answers.
Urban City Podcast will update this story as Fairfield police release new information. Follow our ongoing news coverage and read our latest California report on the fight over mail ballots now before the courts.
