Teen arrested in Brandon Mall shooting

Well, a 16 year old faces an attempted murder charge over last night shooting at the Brandon Exchange or the Brandon Mall. Investigators say it's not the first time he brought a gun to that mall. Fox 13's Aaron Mesmer is there tonight. We know a little bit more about what happened. Aaron, it was no concerning last night for so many people, especially who were there. What have you learned now about the teenage suspect? Yeah, Mark, this is actually the second time that he's been arrested, connected to incidents that happened here. At the Brandon Exchange Mall just within the last five months or so, both involve accusations that he brought loaded guns to this mall, including yesterday's, which is now turned into an attempted first-degree murder charge. Deputies say this is the person who was at the center of this investigation, 16-year-old Deshaun Williams. He was among the two groups at the mall yesterday that they were fighting in a hallway near the family room area. Several people eventually ran into the mall's main corridor where investigators say Williams began firing a gun. Fortunately, maybe miraculously, no one was shot. One person was injured by broken glass. The executive director of Safe and Sound Hillsborough, that's an organization that works with troubled teenagers, says these types of crimes can have long-term impacts on teens. They don't think the long term consequences, they're thinking of that in the moment. When you look at incidents of fights, we see so many people get in their phones to record the fight instead of stopping the fight. And so we have to get our young people to understand, you have a responsibility. If you see something wrong, say something. If you see someone acting out or bullying someone else, just get involved and stop it. Instead of recording it, let's try to contact people who can try to intervene and break this stuff up. Yeah, and this is this mall has seen its share of gun violence over the years. First of all, we mentioned the unrelated incident also connected to Williams from June and just a few months ago in July, a 15 year old boy was shot and killed in a separate incident at Dick's House of Sport. A different 16 year old was charged with manslaughter in that case. And back in 2022, there was a string of shootings on mall property in January, June and October of that year. One of them dealing with an undercover operation. As for Williams, it's unclear at this point, Mark, where He got the weapons involved in either this case or the one connected to the case back in June. All right, Aaron Mesmer, live for us. Aaron, thanks so much.