‘It makes me nervous’: Shoppers on edge after another West Edmonton Mall lockdown

Some Edmonton shoppers expressed a growing concern for their safety Sunday, one day after a gun scare led to a lockdown at the West Edmonton Mall.

The mall was briefly locked down Saturday afternoon after a man was reportedly spotted with a gun.

Officers were called around 2:30 p.m. and placed the mall under lockdown. Police say one person was taken into custody.

No shots were fired and nobody was injured, according to EPS.

But the incident still had some shoppers on edge Sunday.

“I never used to hear about it and it makes me nervous now that I have two teenage kids and they spend quite a bit of time at the mall,” one mother told CityNews from the WEM parking lot. “Makes me rethink what we’re all doing.

“It makes me a little more nervous going into them. But everywhere’s kind of scary now.”

It wasn’t the first lockdown at the West Edmonton Mall this year due to a gun.

In August, Edmonton police say three people were injured after an exchange of gunfire between two groups outside the mall.

That locked down one of the largest malls in North America for two hours.

While Saturday’s lockdown was shorter, it still had the potential to impact Edmontonians’ shopping habits.

“Obviously it could change my perception a little of coming to the mall, doing the holiday shopping,” one man told CityNews.

Others felt it was business as usual.

“I choose to believe in the better side of humanity,” one woman said. “I always want to believe that good’s going to outweigh evil. There’s always going to be some bad apples in the group. You can’t let it spoil the whole bunch.”