Shoppers, Workers Recount Frightening Moments After Shots Rang Out At Danbury Fair Mall On Wednesday Night

DANBURY, Conn. (CBSNewYork) -- Police say they have a good lead on the young man who opened fire at a local mall, causing shoppers to run for cover and seek safety in back rooms of stores.

One teenage girl was struck by a bullet, but police are not sure if she was an intended target, CBS2's Tony Aiello reported Thursday.

The Danbury Fair Mall reopened with no signs of Wednesday night's frantic and dangerous scene.

"It was quiet. There were some stores that were shut down, though," shopper Anne O'Donnell said.

"You can't let those kinds of things stop you from doing what you need to do," Tyler O'Donnell added.

At around 7 p.m. on Wednesday, people fled after a dispute between two groups of young people ended with one shot fired. Many shoppers sought shelter in stores.

"I just jumped up, like, what the heck was that? I'm thinking like somebody either dropped something or that was a gunshot," shopper Tyreef Mahboob said.

"I immediately went into fight-or-flight response and started running toward the exit,' Ibrahim Bhavnagarwala added.

"I seen like a 16-year-old girl run past me, saying her friend just got shot. So, I didn't know who was the shooter. So I turned around and I ran out of there as well," Mahboob said.

First responders flooded the scene as cops went store to store evacuating those in hiding.

Police said the gunfire struck a 15-year-old girl in the torso. She was listed in stable condition on Thursday.

"She was part of the group involved in the altercation, but it is still unclear if she was the intended target of the shooting," Danbury Police Chief Patrick Ridenhour said.

Police said they have a good lead on the gunman -- a male in his late teens -- and urged him to turn himself in.

The day-after aura of normalcy at the mall was for some a facade. One store manager told Aiello off camera she sheltered three people in her back room, didn't sleep Wednesday night, and was nervous about returning Thursday.