Puyallup police arrest 2 teens with guns at South Hill Mall

Puyallup police arrested two teenagers with guns at the South Hill Mall on Sunday afternoon, the department announced.

According to police, officers were called to the mall around 2:10 p.m. for reports of two males wearing full masks carrying a shotgun in the parking lot of the mall’s movie theater.

An off-duty Air Marshal supervisor who was at the mall saw two Black males with masks posing and making what they thought to be “gang hand-signs” while taking selfies near a car parked in the parking lot, according to police.

One of the males was holding the shotgun and appeared to put it in a nearby bush. The two then entered the mall as the Air Marshal supervisor followed them while on the phone with police.

When Puyallup police officers arrived, the males — a 15-year-old from Tacoma and a 17-year-old from Spanaway — ran away but were caught across from the movie theater. Police said the shotgun had been put back into the car the teens were associated with, but the 17-year-old did have a semi-automatic Glock handgun in his waistband.

The car was impounded for a search warrant and both teens were booked into Remann Hall on two counts of juvenile possession of a firearm and obstructing law enforcement.

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