Five Arrested After ‘Targeted’ Shooting at Louisiana Mall

Shots rang out at a Baton Rouge, Louisiana, mall on Thursday after two groups got into what police are calling a “confrontation that left one person dead and five others injured. 

Baton Rouge Police Chief TJ Morse told reporters late Thursday that five individuals were in custody, though as of Friday morning the ages and names of those arrested have not been released, nor have authorities detailed what charges each of the five face. 

Three high school seniors from Ascension Episcopal School were among the victims of the shooting, according to a Facebook post from Lafayette Parish President Monique Blanco Boulet.

“We are heartbroken by the senseless violence that happened today at the Mall of Louisiana in Baton Rouge,” she said, adding that she was asking her community to “join us in holding all of these families close in prayer.”

Rachel Delcambre, a spokesperson for the school, said in an email that the school would not be giving additional information at this time “out of deep respect for the families and the sensitivity of this situation.”

According to WAFB-TV, a 17-year-old was killed in the shooting. The station also named 18-year-old Marcus Washington as one of those arrested, though the Livingston Parish sheriff says his office cannot confirm that he was involved in the shooting itself. Sheriff Jason Ard informed the station that Washington was taken into custody after investigators found him in possession of Schedule II narcotics and a firearm. 

Witnesses to the shooting described a chaotic situation.

Signi Dreyer, who works at the carousel inside the mall, said she was cleaning when she heard gunshots and saw a gunman “turning in circles and shooting.” She said it appeared the person was “shooting randomly.”

“I heard a loud bang and then another loud bang,” Dreyer said. “At first, I thought someone was shooting fireworks in the food court. I turned around, and I saw people dropping to the ground, and I immediately saw the gun.”

Though Dreyer only saw one person shooting, the Baton Rouge police chief believes others were involved. It’s possible that some shots may have been fired by others in self-defense, though that has yet to be determined by investigators. 

Coming just days after the spree killings of eight children in Shreveport, Louisiana, the shooting at the Baton Rouge mall quickly became fodder for gun control groups. 

At least 10 people were wounded today in a shooting at the Mall of Louisiana in Baton Rouge. This comes just days after eight young kids were killed in another mass shooting in the state.

Our communities don’t even have time to grieve between tragedies.https://t.co/zU4miIWQsx

— GIFFORDS (@GIFFORDS_org) April 23, 2026

We know next to nothing about the perpetrator or perpetrators of Thursday’s shooting, but we do know that the man responsible for the mass murder of those kids in Shreveport was the father of seven of them, and was prohibited from possessing a firearm because of an earlier conviction. 

Giffords has yet to detail what gun control law the group believes would have prevented that shooting. Instead, the group is content to exploit that tragedy to demand more gun control in general. 

The previous post on Giffords’ X feed was the group’s endorsement of Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who has earned its support by (among other things) signing a gun and magazine ban into law. Despite all of Illinois’ restrictive gun laws, though, teens can still easily get their hands on a firearm. 

A 16-year-old boy on probation for a gun case, with two more firearm arrests in his background, chased down and killed a Brighton Park man on a neighborhood street last autumn, prosecutors said Tuesday.

Ayden Reynolds is charged as an adult with first-degree murder in the October 6, 2025, killing of 33-year-old Alan Maldonado. Judge James Costello ordered him detained.

… At the time of the killing, Reynolds was serving probation for a prior aggravated assault charge, according to Malkin. That case stemmed from a March 24, 2024, arrest in which Reynolds allegedly pointed a gun at someone on a soccer field. During a custodial search, officers recovered a handgun equipped with a switch that allowed it to fire automatically, like a machine gun, and an extended magazine, according to Malkin. Reynolds was adjudicated delinquent on May 27, 2025, receiving 36 months of probation.

Reynolds was also arrested on gun charges in August and November, 2024. In one case, the charge was dismissed as part of a plea bargain, and CWB Chicago was unable to determine the outcome of the other case. 

The gun control lobby is going to blame the Baton Rouge shooting on Louisiana’s “lax” gun laws, while at the same time they’re endorsing politicians who oversee a criminal justice system that delivers gentle pats on the wrist to teens who are caught illegally possessing guns and using them to commit violent crimes. Illinois may have restrictive gun laws in place, but it’s clear that those laws are having a much bigger impact on legal gun owners than felons, teens, and other prohibited persons.  

Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.

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