A quiet summer afternoon at the upscale Fashion Island shopping center in Newport Beach descended into violence Tuesday when a woman was killed during a botched robbery attempt.
Authorities said two men accosted the 69-year-old woman and her husband near a Barnes & Noble store in the mall. After the shooting, police said no one was hit by bullets.
The couple was walking in Fashion Island when two men approached them and attempted to rob them, according to Sgt. Steven Oberon of the Newport Beach Police Department.
A fight ensued and the woman was dragged into the parking lot and then run over by the suspect’s white Toyota Camry. The woman’s husband is not believed to have been injured, Oberon said.
The victim was not immediately identified.
After the incident, police chased the suspects and took them into Los Angeles County. Authorities reported the Camry was traveling northbound at speeds of up to 110 mph. A television news helicopter captured video of the car veering onto the left shoulder of Highway 105 and briefly grazing a concrete median.
During the pursuit, the fleeing driver allegedly released at least one accomplice before he and another man sped off. The two eventually jumped out of the car at the South Gate and fled on foot around Harding and Hoover avenues, according to video of the chase shown by police and multiple local television news stations.
News footage showed a shirtless man being detained minutes after jumping from the driver’s seat of a car. Eventually, three suspects were captured.
The shooting happened around 3:30 pm on Tuesday at a usually quiet shopping center perched on a bluff in the affluent coastal community.
The Newport Beach Fire Department said one person was found dead in a parking lot near the bookstore.
Authorities told nearby residents to avoid the shopping mall around 4 p.m. while they investigated the incident. Police were at the scene guiding people to safety, while helicopters were hovering above.
A woman shopping in the area on Tuesday described the situation as “raucous”. She said she was from Los Angeles and was grateful for the police’s quick response. She declined to give her name.
A young man who did not want to be named said he was at Cucina enoteca in Fashion Island when the incident occurred.
“About 20 people were running and screaming, ‘Someone’s shot!’ and they locked us in the restaurant,” he said.
“This is not happening in Newport Beach,” Mayor Will O’Neill told KCAL-9 News. “Fashion Island is a very safe place. This is a tragedy and I am outraged.
City News contributed to this report. Winton and Rainey are staff writers for The Times. Nguyen and Huffman are staff writers for The Daily Pilot, a sister publication of The Times.
