Gunfire at Fleming’s Steakhouse

BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer

A man fired a gun into the front window of Fleming’s Steakhouse at the Stanford Shopping Center this afternoon (Nov. 21), and about 20 minutes later police stormed the mall with long rifles, telling shoppers over a loudspeaker to leave or hide in a store.

There turned out not to be an active shooter, and the scene was cleared at the mall shortly after 5 p.m.

Police said that a shooter fired a handgun from a moving car on El Camino Real at 4:24 p.m.

One bullet shattered the front glass at Fleming’s, which was just opening, and another bullet hit a parked car. Nobody was hit by the gunfire, police said.

About 20 minutes later, a person at the mall reported that someone had a holster, prompting a large police response.

Officers from Palo Alto, Stanford and Menlo Park ran into the mall with their guns up, while shoppers ran in the opposite direction.

Some of the shoppers were holding babies or pushing strollers while they fled.

Police told people who were at the center of the mall to go inside a store and lock the doors.

“Everyone was pretty shook up,” said Eli Vargas, who works at Vuori and hid by the fitting rooms with 10 other employees and shoppers.

The scene was cleared after officers checked the entirety of the mall. No one reported seeing a gun being pointed or displayed, police said.

El Camino Real was shut down during the incident, causing long traffic delays. Police reopened El Camino at 6:30 p.m.

Two bullet casings were found on the road, police said. Officers are looking for a black Chevrolet Camaro that was reported at the scene of the shooting. The Camaro was headed north on El Camino.

This is the second shooting at Fleming’s this year.

On Feb. 10 around 10 p.m., a man was getting in his car after eating dinner with his girlfriend, and another man ran up behind him and shot him twice in the hand and the foot.

The victim was treated at the hospital, but he wouldn’t answer questions about what happened, police said.