A social media sale gone awry led to gunfire and panic at Barton Creek Square Mall earlier this month, with Austin authorities now confirming the arrest of 19-year-old Vincent Gutierrez in the case. The chaos ensued when a meetup to sell a collection of pricey sneakers turned violent, leaving one man with a gunshot wound and shoppers in a state of shock, according to KXAN.
The December 12 shooting was the result of four men attempting to conduct a shoe transaction that originated on Facebook Marketplace, court records revealed. When the deal soured, it led to a confrontation and subsequently a shooting. One of the suspects, Perez, gave a bogus name to the authorities but was later identified and taken into custody for his failure to identify himself properly. It appears that the root of the dispute was a series of items listed online, which were suspected to have been stolen from a burglary days prior, as indicated in an interview by one of the planned buyers, as per KXAN.
Gutierrez is facing two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. During the fateful meetup, a brawl broke out, leading to the injury of an unnamed man and initiating an active shooter scare which sent the mall into an abrupt evacuation. Amid the turmoil, personal items were abandoned by fleeing shoppers, as reported by KVUE.
