A pair of suspects have been arrested in Chicago following last week's gunfire inside a crowded store at the Mall of America, police said Thursday.
Shamar Alon Lark, 21, of Minneapolis and Rashad Jamal May, 22, of Burnsville were arrested during a traffic stop conducted by the Chicago FBI's Fugitive Task Force about 2:25 p.m. Thursday, Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges said during a news conference Thursday evening. The two had just left a barbershop and were in a vehicle with another person who was driving.
Lark and May were arrested without incident and are in the process of being booked into the Cook County jail in Illinois and then will be extradited to Minnesota, according to Hodges.
"A week ago, we said that you can't shoot at the mall and expect to get away with it. You can't commit these acts and think you're going to enjoy the freedoms of a free society," Hodges said. "It's my hope that Mr. Lark and Mr. May get the help they need to turn their lives around after they are held accountable for their actions."
Warrants were issued for the men who face several gun charges, including second-degree assault, felony discharge of a dangerous weapon and felony possession without a permit for Lark. May is charged with aiding an offender.
The two were shown in mall surveillance video fleeing a fight among four other individuals that led to Lark firing several shots. No one was injured in the incident that sent shoppers scurrying and led the mall into lockdown.
Lark is on probation for a gunfire incident in September near SE. 26th and Delaware avenues. Lark and another male ran from the area of the gunfire, and he was later apprehended while in possession of a firearm. He was charged with carrying a pistol without a permit.
Three other people were arrested and charged Monday with aiding an offender: Denesh Raghubir, 21, of Minneapolis; Selena Raghubir, 23, of Bloomington; and Delyanie Kwen-Shawn Arnold, 23, of Burnsville. They are accused of helping the men escape the mall.
According to charging documents:
May drove Lark's vehicle to the mall, arriving about 4 p.m. Thursday. It was left in the parking ramp and towed to the Bloomington Police Department, where officers searched the vehicle and found IDs for both men as well as a handgun holster in the trunk.
Three cartridges were found inside the main entrance of the Nike store after officers responded shortly before 4:20 p.m. Security video shows a fight broke out before May and Lark left the store briefly. Lark returned and fired a handgun in the direction of the fight. He then ran out the north doors with May and into the Ikea parking lot, where they could no longer be seen on surveillance.
The men were picked up by a Best Western hotel shuttle at Ikea and taken to the hotel just south of the mall. Officers interviewed the shuttle driver, Denesh Raghubir, who told police he dropped them off and last saw them smoking outside the hotel.
Officers obtained a search warrant for May's phone, which showed that two minutes after the gunfire, he called Arnold, who in return called May five times between 4:20 and 4:23 p.m.
Arnold then called his girlfriend, Selena Raghubir, an assistant manager at the hotel who is a cousin of the shuttle driver. The couple exchanged calls with May about 4:30 p.m.
Ten minutes later, the shuttle driver is shown on surveillance picking up Lark and May at Ikea and dropping them off at the back side of the hotel, where a vehicle registered to Selena Raghubir followed.
It was the second incident of gunfire at the Mall of America within a year's span. On Dec. 31, 2021, two people were shot and wounded following a dispute on the mall's third floor.
Kahlil M. Wiley pleaded guilty in Hennepin County District Court to second-degree assault in connection with the December shooting.
