2 men charged in shooting at packed Chicago-area mall

CHICAGO (AP) — Two Chicago men have been charged in a shooting at a suburban Chicago shopping mall that wounded four bystanders and sent thousands of last-minute Christmas shoppers running for cover last week.

Tyran Williams, 32, and Steve Lane, 29, face multiple felonies, including aggravated discharge of a firearm, in the Dec. 23 shootout at Oakbrook Center, a mall in west suburban Oak Brook.

A judge issued a $1 million bail Wednesday for both men during a court appearance.

DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin said at a news conference that Williams and Lane fired at each other near Auntie Anne’s pretzel store at the shopper-filled mall after an argument broke out between Williams and Lane’s male companion.

“The facts allege in this case that on one of the busiest shopping days of the year, at the second largest shopping mall in the Chicago area, that these two defendants decided to settle a verbal argument by taking out handguns and firing multiple times with thousands of men, women children and families present,” Berlin said.

Williams was hit four times, while three women and a man who were in the area were also wounded in the shooting. Lane and his companion fled after the shooting, authorities said.

Berlin said a total of 12 shots were fired in the gun battle, and mall security estimates that between 15,000 and 20,000 people were in the mall at the time.

Berlin said there is no evidence Lane’s companion was one of the gunmen. He said prosecutors have spoken to that man’s attorney and expect to speak with him soon.

Investigators recovered both guns used in the shooting and found DNA matched to Lane and Williams on those weapons, he said.