Last Friday, Abington police arrested Heyzer Perez-Maldonado, an 18-year-old from Philadelphia, under the charges of attempted murder, aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, and carrying a firearm without a license.

On Sunday, November 15th, Perez-Maldonado shot a man in the parking lot of the Willow Grove Mall. The two had a verbal altercation inside the building, and just about ten minutes before the mall closing, they walked out into the parking lot, where Perez-Maldonado pulled out his gun and opened fire. The victim was not killed but was later treated for non-fatal injuries at Abington-Jefferson Hospital. The following morning, Deputy Police Chief Kelley Warner reported that the victim was still recovering in the hospital.

Police responded to the situation at around 6 P.M.; by the time they arrived at the crime scene, investigators determined that the suspect had already fled. They found the victim lying on the pavement by the mall’s second level entrance doors near Nordstrom Rack and Primark. 

No one else inside the mall was wounded by the suspect. With the shooter gone from the area, shoppers did not have to evacuate the mall, but the police advised residents to avoid the crime scene so that law enforcement could continue their investigation.

Since the police did not find the shooter at the Willow Grove Mall after the incident, they arrested Perez-Maldonado at his residence later that week. Abington authorities, with the assistance of the Philadelphia Police Department, detained Perez-Maldonado before his preliminary arraignment for his several charges.