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A 19-year-old teenager has been identified as a victim in Friday's (December 23) shooting at Mall of America.
Johntae Hudson died on Friday from “multiple gunshot wounds" in the Bloomington, Minnesota mall, the Hennepin County medical examiner confirmed, per NBC News.
On a GoFundMe page created to cover funeral costs, the family described Hudson as "the most loving and caring person."
"He radiated positive and fun energy and his smile lit up the room. He was an overall great person and we want to give him the funeral he deserves. Anything will help," the GoFundMe fundraiser reads.
The shooting unfolded on the first floor of Nordstrom in the nation's largest mall the day before Christmas Eve, Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges said.
Officers arrived at the scene after hearing gunshots just before 8 p.m. They found one male with multiple gunshot wounds and a bystander whose jacket was grazed by a bullet, Hodges said immediately following the shooting.
According to police, an altercation broke out between a group of five to nine people before the shooting occurred. Five individuals, three of them 17-year-olds and two 18-year-olds, have been arrested in connection to the fatal incident, Hodges announced on Saturday (December 24).
Hudson's sister, Ja'Nayea Hudson, said her brother's sudden death doesn't seem real.
“He was supposed to go to the mall to find, like, a sweater to go with his shoes to go to his friend’s birthday that night,” she said.
An investigation into the shooting remains ongoing.
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