There was an "alleged" shooting at Crossgates Mall on Saturday afternoon. The FBI was called the state police and everyone else in between.

The mall was shut down for hours looking for a shooter who was a "6 foot black male with a hoodie." As of Monday morning, police were still following leads trying to make an arrest.

Credit: Nick Kessler
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This had people all over Capital District on alert. The way it was reported in the news made it seem like a terrorist had taken over the mall and was having a shootout with the police.

I was scrolling some of the comments on the internet and found some interesting conspiracy theories on what actually happened... because people on the internet know exactly what happened, especially the people who weren't even at the mall.

Here are some of my favorites:

  • THERE WAS NO SHOOTING AT ALL

I feel like this didn't happen as reported. 13 shots fired in a crowded mall? That's like a scene in a shootout movie. Yet nobody was hit, the suspect is the most generic black guy description imaginable, and there's no actual evidence that it happened, other than a bunch of ppl just screaming and running and saying they heard chaos of some kind.

This actually makes sense. The description of the suspect was way to vague, and don't they have cameras all over the mall? Wouldn't that suspect have been plastered all over the afternoon news, and better yet Facebook?

  • THE WHITE GUY DID IT

I was in the mall and the guy running through the mall after the shots were fired was white. I don't know why they are trying to pin this on a black man.

Ehh, I don't know about this one. If people hear gunshots, the first reaction is to look where they are coming from and get away.

  • WHERE ARE THE BULLET HOLES?

If shots were fired wouldn't they have found some bullet holes by now?

Great question!

  • WHO WEARS WHITE AFTER LABOR DAY?

What the heck is wrong with this man? Wearing white after labor day, outrageous!

Hilarious. Another person who doesn't believe anything happened at all.

  • OCEAN 11 SHOPLIFTERS MADE UP A PLAN TO STEAL CLOTHES FROM AEROPOSTALE

This sounds like a mass shoplifting scheme to me. One of the gang fires off a few firecrackers, and the rest slip their unpaid merchandise into bags with a few cheap, bulky items that they already paid for. Then they run out of the store for dear life.

In the frenzy, no one will try to stop them check whether their receipts match the items in their bags. They're all looking for the non-existent shooter. Then once the conspirators get outside, they simply walk to their cars with all their loot...

I don't know if people are going to risk doing all that to steal some clothes from Macy's. The alleged shooting took place next to the MAC store—I didn't hear Apple complaining about massive theft from the Albany Crossgates, right?

Here are the facts

No one was hurt during the alleged shooting. Whether someone was shooting at another person or not still has to be determined. The lesson to be learned here is if and when something like this happens things can get very confusing very quickly, and social media can be used to spread a lot of misinformation. All of these people have conspiracy theories on something they haven't even thoroughly investigated.

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