A shootout between two groups erupted in the food court of the Mall of Louisiana on Thursday afternoon, April 23, 2026, killing one person and wounding five others. Five people were taken into custody, Baton Rouge Police Chief Thomas “T.J.” Morse Jr. said. Four of the detainees were released.
The violence at Louisiana’s largest mall was not a random attack but rather a targeted confrontation that spiraled out of control, investigators said. Morse, citing surveillance footage, said the gunfire erupted at 1:22 p.m. after a verbal dispute between two groups quickly escalated inside the Baton Rouge shopping center.
“Two groups of people got into an argument inside the food court and started shooting at each other,” Morse said. “Unfortunately, there were some innocent people who were in the area that might have also caught some rounds.”
The deceased victim, Martha Odom, 17, was at the mall with friends for “senior skip day” before graduation. She was the captain of her soccer team, editor of her school newspaper and a teacher at her dance school.
Officials revised an initial estimate that 10 people had been hurt, confirming that four suffered minor injuries while one victim, a 43-year-old man, remained in critical condition Thursday evening. Some innocent bystanders were struck by the gunfire, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill confirmed.
Among those wounded were three high school seniors from Ascension Episcopal School, a PK3-through-12 school in Lafayette, Lafayette Mayor-President Monique Blanco Boulet announced in a Facebook post.
“We are heartbroken by the senseless violence that happened today at the Mall of Louisiana in Baton Rouge,” Boulet wrote, asking the community to “join us in holding all of these families close in prayer.”
Rachel Delcambre, a spokesperson for the school, declined to release further information, citing “deep respect for the families and the sensitivity of this situation.”
The lunchtime shooting triggered a chaotic scene of screaming shoppers, cowering store clerks, and a heavy law enforcement response that drew the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to the scene. A Baton Rouge Police officer assigned to the mall and a sheriff’s deputy in the parking lot rushed toward the gunfire as it broke out, according to police accounts.
Alex Theriot, a commercial electrician working on a construction project a few hundred feet from the food court, thought a gunman might be moving store to store. He quickly screwed shut the door of his work site and hunkered down with two other workers.
“Everybody was running and screaming,” Theriot told The Associated Press. “I thought it could have been a terrorist attack.”
The first sign of danger came in the form of sudden, sharp cracks and the sound of glass breaking. Desire Batton, who works at a clothing store, fled with coworkers into a breakroom. “We hid in there until cops came and got us,” she said.
Kennedy Barnum, 22, had walked in to grab lunch when she overheard a woman outside on a cellphone saying, “I’ll call you back. There’s an active shooter in the mall.” Signi Dreyer, a carousel operator at the mall, was among those who scrambled to safety.
By late afternoon, dozens of police cruisers were clustered in the parking lot. Helicopters hovered overhead. Officers in bulletproof vests patrolled the grounds. Mall spokesperson Lindsay Kahn called it a “frightening day” and confirmed the mall would not reopen Thursday.
A 17-year-old suspect named Markel Lee turned himself in on Friday, April 24, and was charged with first-degree murder, five counts of attempted first-degree murder, and one count of illegal use of a firearm. He had his first court appearance on Monday, April 27 before Commissioner Kory Tauzin and was held without bond. Police are still searching for one additional person wanted for questioning.
“This is still an ongoing investigation, and we’re still looking for more people who may be involved,” Morse said.
According to officials briefed on the investigation, there is no known continuing threat to the public. Morse described the incident as a “very targeted kind of disagreement” and pledged to track down anyone else connected to the shooting.
Investigators were continuing to collect surveillance footage and appealing for witnesses to share any video they recorded. Federal agents joined the investigation at the scene and were assisting local police with ballistics and forensic work expected to stretch into the weekend.
The incident comes as Louisiana remains shaken from another tragedy earlier in the week. On Sunday morning in a Shreveport neighborhood, a father fatally shot eight children — seven of his own and one nephew. Two women, including the gunman’s wife, were critically wounded.
Gov. Jeff Landry, Baton Rouge Mayor-President Sid Edwards, and Attorney General Murrill all responded to the shooting, which compounds a week of grief across the state as public officials grapple with multiple violent incidents.
For shoppers who fled with their hands over their heads, and for the families now waiting on word from hospitals, the afternoon stood as another stark marker in a week Louisiana will not soon forget.
