A masked gunman shot dead two people and seriously injured another in a Portland, Oregon, mall Tuesday, sending Christmas shoppers and people waiting in line to see Santa Claus running for cover.

The shooting happened around 3:20 p.m. PST in the food court near the Macy's, triggering panic among an estimated 10,000 shoppers at the Clackamas Town Center.

Police agencies were able to "basically hunt down, find this guy" in record time, Sheriff Craig Roberts said.

Lt. James Rhodes, of the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office, said the gunman, described as an adult male, died of a self-inflicted gunshot.

Wait...so they hunted down a suicide case in record time?  Nice police work there, boys.

A young woman was wounded and was transported by ambulance to Oregon Health Science University Hospital around 5:30 p.m., according to a hospital spokesman. The woman was described as being in "serious" condition, on a scale of "good" to "critical."

When the shooting began, people in line to get their photos taken with Santa immediately dove for cover.

A woman who answered the phone at a Chipotle restaurant in the mall Tuesday told reporters that someone ran in and yelled, "It's a shooting, it's a shooting."

She said employees shut the doors. She said the mall was crawling with police.

Too soon for a joke about the stress caused by holiday shopping?

-W&J's Producer

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