Police in North Carolina are searching for a gunman after they said a person was shot inside the AMC Theaters at the Concord Mills Mall on Sunday evening.
Police said the male victim was rushed to the hospital with what appeared to be non-life-threatening injuries.
Authorities said the shooting happened around 6 p.m. during an argument over seating in the theater and was not an active shooter situation.
Officials said they did not believe the suspect and the victim knew each other.
Concord police said the shooter left the mall before police arrived.
Officials said the suspect is described as a man with short dreads wearing a black and white striped shirt and said to be with a woman.
Authorities closed the mall immediately after the shooting.
Moviegoers described a chaotic scene that included people running and falling over each other, crime scene tape and blood on the ground inside the movie theater.
A teenager who heard the gunshots said he did not know if he was more nervous or scared.
"It sounded like gunshots, it sounded like popping noises and everyone started running so I started running so I didn't have to be in the chaotic moment," Brach Walker said.
Jonathan Winchell said he traveled from Greenville, South Carolina, because Concord was the closest theater showing the film he wanted to see.
"What's scarier is the fact that it's not so scary because it happens all the time," Winchell said. "Anyone being shot should be a horrendous, unlikely, should never happen."
Winchell said he also let a stranger use his phone so they could let their family know they were safe as law enforcement evacuated the mall.
AMC officials said guns are not allowed in the theaters. According to the AMC Theater Code of Conduct, "Carrying or displaying weapons of any kind -- real or toy -- are not allowed."
It also bans fighting, engaging in intimidating, disordering, or disruptive behavior.
No other information has been released.
If you have information regarding this case, you are encouraged to call the Concord Police Department at 704-920-5000.
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