NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) – A mall shooting leaves one man dead and another behind bars. It happened on Christmas Eve at Oakwood, while the mall was full of holiday shoppers.

WGNO’s Darian Trotter has details, reaction, and the latest on the investigation.

For people close to the victim, it was too much to believe, and far too hard to understand.

The sorrow at Oakwood Mall in Terrytown followed all out chaos.

Trotter asked, “Tell me what it was like in there? I just heard gunshots and I had my niece and my daughter and we were running for our lives,” Jenell Neilson said.

“I’m still shaking,” other shoppers described. “All we seen was nothing but flames and pop, pop, pop, pop.”

The shooting inside Foot Locker sent holiday shoppers running for cover.

Some scampered out of shoes, others left entire meals behind in the food court, where chairs were toppled over.

“Everybody was just panicking and didn’t know where to go.”

It all happened around 4:30, about an hour and a half before the mall was set to close.

Within seconds, 24-year old James Vaughn was dead, and after a short foot chase – suspected shooter, Gary François, 25, was in custody.

“The victim had just finished a transaction at the cash register and had turned any from the cash register and was walking away when the perpetrator walked up within three to four feet of him and we believe at this point here were three shots fired,” said Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand.

“It actually sounded like a shelf fell, and the next thing you know it was two more loud sounds and everybody started running,” a shopper recounted.

Police and emergency responders rushed into the crowded mall, as frantic shoppers staggered out panicked and perplexed.

“I can’t take New Orleans no more. It’s supposed to be a day where we come shopping and a n**** just get hit.”

“We’re not sure what the cause of the situation, if there was an altercation in the mall between these two individuals or what the situation is. We’re still interviewing some of the eyewitnesses, the store employees,” Sheriff Normand said.

Trotter asked Neilson, “What do you think about this happening on Christmas Eve? It’s sad because they had a lot of kids in there. A lot of people and kids and for them to open and start shooting like that, it’s crazy,” she replied.

“I’m scared for the young folks bruh. I really am. It needs to change in New Orleans,” other shoppers added. “It’s sad it really is.”

During all of the chaos, and the rush to get out of the mall, investigators say no one else was hurt.

Detectives say security camera video shows François standing outside the shoe store waiting for Vaughn to complete his sales transaction.

Francois was arrested a short distance away from the mall parking lot.