Driver in custody after SUV crashes through shopping mall outside Chicago

Videos and posts on Twitter reveal a chaotic scene as the SUV weaves around kiosks and crashes into walls. Photo / Twitter

An SUV drove through a popular mall outside of Chicago on Friday afternoon, slamming into stores and kiosks and sending shoppers fleeing for safety.

A man is now in custody, Schaumburg police told CBS Chicago. The FBI's Chicago office is "assisting at the request of local law enforcement," spokeswoman Siobhan Johnson wrote in a statement to The Washington Post.

"There is no known threat to public safety," Johnson wrote.

Videos and posts on Twitter from people at Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, Illinois, on Friday afternoon revealed a chaotic and terrifying scene. Witnesses told CBS Chicago that the black Chevy TrailBlazer drove through a mall entrance by the Sears department store and then into the middle of the large indoor mall. One person told CBS that the driver was navigating the car "like you would a shopping cart."

At one point, the vehicle paused in front of a Forever 21 store, then it moved on - just as a panicked man in a blue button-down ran in the opposite direction.

So this just happened at Woodfield. I’m safe. Jesus Christ pic.twitter.com/fOfhtPkWvr

— ronin (@nipsfalloff) September 20, 2019

Schaumburg police, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday, told CBS Chicago that no shots were fired. Several stores had reportedly been placed on lockdown. No major injuries were reported.

A video posted to social media by another mall-goer, Gloria Desiato, documented the initial moments of the frightening scene.

In the video, Desiato is Snapchatting her boyfriend when loud screeching noises and several screams punctuate the narrative. The car had just crashed into the front of the Sears store, Gloria later explained on Twitter.

So this video was taken today at @WoodfieldMall I was walking, talking to my bf on snap and if you watch the whole thing you will hear the car crashing into the front of sears and people screaming pic.twitter.com/c6UjwVWd3B

— Gloria (@princess_8435) September 20, 2019

Thinking the loud noise was the sound of gunshots, she raced to her car in the parking lot and sped off.

"My instinct was to get as far away as possible," she said. "I think Woodfield Mall is a safe zone for a lot of people - it's a normal mall, that's why I felt comfortable being there alone - and that's why this is just so shocking."