A man is in custody following a shooting at the Brass Mill Center mall in Waterbury on Tuesday that left five people injured — a chaotic situation that police said could have been much worse.
The shooting, which police believe stemmed from a dispute that escalated into gunfire, was reported at 4:43 p.m. on Tuesday when officers were dispatched to the mall at 495 Union St. on the report of shots being fired, according to Lt. Ryan Bessette of the Waterbury Police Department.
Responding officers found five adults suffering from gunshot wounds which were later determined not to be life-threatening, Bessette said. No fatalities were reported.
The scene was very chaotic for the first officers on scene, as they were not initially not sure if there was still an active shooter in the mall when they arrived, Waterbury Police Chief Fernando C. Spagnolo said during a new briefing on Wednesday outside the mall.
Spagnolo said there was security staff in the mall when gunfire erupted but no officers were inside. Multiple officers in the area were at the mall within about three minutes, he said.
Police had to escort firefighters and medics — some of whom were wearing bulletproof vests — inside so they could give aid to the victims, who were between 18 and mid-20s in age, according to Spagnolo. No juveniles were believed to be involved. Each of the victims was later taken to an area hospital and treated for wounds that varied in severity.
As of Wednesday, three of the victims were released from the hospital, and the other two remained in stable condition, according to Waterbury Mayor Paul Pernerewski. One of the victims was reportedly shot in her spine and had regained feeling in her back and extremities as of Wednesday afternoon, Pernerewski said.
Police do not believe the shooting was a random act.
“We believe this started as a conflict and it escalated,” Spagnolo said, adding that the shooting occurred in a “central area” of the mall. “We do know there was one gunman at this time we’ve identified.”
Spagnolo said the suspected shooter, identified as 19-year-old Tajuan Washington of Waterbury, was allegedly armed with a semi-automatic .40-caliber pistol. Waterbury police were assisted by the Connecticut State Police as well as the ATF and the FBI during the investigation.
Immediately following the shooting, authorities scrambled to determine where the gunman entered the mall and where he left using video surveillance and other digital evidence, Spagnolo said. Law enforcement split up into teams who searched the mall and helped tend to the victims, while others went straight to where the building’s video surveillance could be reviewed.
Spagnolo said at a Tuesday news briefing that the suspect may have been assisted by someone, though he did not elaborate.
He added that some of the staff and consumers who were in the mall when gunfire rang out went into a shelter-in-place mode until the area was deemed safe. Authorities used a K-9 unit and went store by store to make sure they covered every “nook and cranny,” according to Spagnolo.
“The people that were in the mall, the consumers that were in the mall did an incredible job of keeping their families safe,” Spagnolo said. “The mall staff did an incredible job at keeping everyone safe. I think they mitigated a lot of what could have been a really bad incident here.”
According to Spagnolo, authorities tracked Washington to his residence where investigators began conducting surveillance. He was followed by police to the Waterbury Police Department where Spagnolo claimed that he told an officer he wanted to report that he was involved in an incident at the mall.
Washington was later arrested. Investigators on Wednesday morning used a search and seizure warrant to comb through his residence, allegedly finding two rifles that were seized by police, according to Spagnolo. Police have not yet found the firearm they believe was used in the shooting.
According to Spagnolo, authorities believe Washington had a history with a man who was in the mall with four women. Police allege that Washington was armed with a handgun and opened fire on all five of the victims following an argument that stemmed from the previous issue the two have had, Spagnolo said. No bystanders in the mall were struck by gunfire.
Washington was held in lieu of $2 million bail and was charged with five counts of first-degree assault and a single count each of risk of injury to a minor, criminal use of a weapon, illegal discharge of a firearm, first-degree reckless endangerment, carrying a pistol without a permit and illegal possession of weapons in a motor vehicle. He was expected to face a judge on Wednesday.
At the time of the shooting, Washington was out on bonds totaling $25,000 in connection with motor vehicle charges that included reckless driving and failure to obey the signal of an officer, according to Spagnolo.
At the Wednesday news briefing, U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes said she knows some of the victims through her Waterbury roots and her work as a teacher. She said she had not spoken to any of them since the shooting.
Hayes also said it would be easy to chalk up the shooting to the fact the mall is in Waterbury, but “gun violence is everywhere.”
“We have to do better,” she said. “It seems like no place in our community is safe. Waterbury is just like every other community, and nobody is off limits,” Hayes said.
This is not the first time a shooting occurred at the Brass Mill Center mall. In December 2023, a 17-year-old was injured in the food court area during what police described as an isolated altercation.
“It’s not an ongoing trend,” Spagnolo said Tuesday. “That was a conflict, it was not a random act of violence. People were held responsible for that, were taken into custody since then.”
Since the 2023 incident, Spagnolo said the mall has been “fairly quiet.”
“These acts occur unfortunately in the society we live in at times,” he said. “But we can’t let it get us down. We just have to make sure we forge forward and are just very aware of our surroundings and stay safe.”
“As a city, we are obviously very shaken to have this happen here,” Pernerewski told reporters. “But we are not broken.”
Pernerewski said later Wednesday, city officials would be meeting with leadership of the mall to have a discussion about enhanced safety.
Spagnolo said he is not yet sure when the mall would reopen, but he hopes it will be soon. He said one of the reasons police were able to handle the scene so well was likely due to them previously using the building for active shooter training.
“This is a terrible tragedy,” Gov. Ned Lamont said at the news briefing.
“Don’t let these guy scare you, I want you back here in this mall,” Lamont said. “It’s going to be open very soon. And what it means to this community is to say that we’re back on our feet and able to get by this.”
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