Instagram photo leads police to mall shooting suspect

After a shooting in a Pennsylvania mall wounded three people and sent shoppers scrambling for safety, investigators used Instagram to track down and arrest a suspect early Sunday, authorities said.

Tarod Thornhill, 17, is accused of targeting a male victim inside a Macy’s at the Monroeville Mall in a suburb east of Pittsburgh on Saturday evening and wounding two others with indiscriminate shooting. Thornhill was being held at the Allegheny County Jail pending arraignment on charges, as an adult, of aggravated assault, attempted homicide and recklessly endangering other people, the Associated Press reported.

The shooting left two victims critically wounded and a third with moderate but non-life-threatening injuries, police said. A Forbes Hospital spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for their updated conditions Sunday.

One of those victims was likely “a targeted individual,” Monroeville Police Chief Douglas Cole told reporters at a televised news conference, but did not provide further details other than to say the attack “was not random.”

Cole added it was “safe to say” that the two other victims were simply bystanders.

At least two shots were fired in the incident, which happened around 7:30 p.m., police said.

Police used surveillance video and images from social media to develop a likely suspect, then found an Instagram photo from earlier Saturday that showed Thornhill wearing the same clothing as the shooter, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Monroeville Police Department Chief Cole could not immediately be reached for comment Sunday.

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