No one was injured and there was only minor damage to property.

According to Mesquite Police, a videotape shows the thief at about 4:45 pm racing out of the jewelry store, through the JC Penney department store, into the mall parking lot and into an unknown vehicle.

The bullet from jewelry store owner Louis Fuentes’ handgun went out of his store, through the crowded mall,  ricocheted off shelving inside the nearby JC Penney department store and came to rest fully intact on a carpet near a rack of men’s sweaters.

The store owner was arrested by police and charged with deadly conduct for discharging a firearm. Bond was set for $40,000. Signs near the mall entrance read that guns are not permitted inside the mall.

Mesquite Police are still searching for the thief described as a black male between 30 to 35 years of age, between 6 feet and 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighing around 240 pounds. He has a military style hair cut and a full beard. He was wearing a light blue T-shirt, gray sweat pants and black and white athletic shoes.

Police spokesman Lt. Doug Yates said that, in his fifteen years in the Mesquite Police Department, he could not remember an incident like this happening at the mall.

Call Mesquite Police if you have any information about the thief or crime at 972-329-8785.

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