Second man arrested in connection with Aventura Mall shooting. Charges: attempted murder

A second man has been arrested for a role in the shooting that happened in the middle of the Aventura Mall, one of South Florida’s busiest and most popular shopping centers.

Aventura police on Tuesday booked 21-year-old Norman Pickens III into a Miami-Dade jail. He’s charged with three counts of attempted murder.

His arrest came six months after the melee at the mall, when three people were wounded by gunfire as crowds raced for cover, fearing there may have been an “active shooter.” The shooting happened in a first-floor indoor area next to the entrance of Nordstrom, the Louis Vuitton, Carolina Herrera and Hugo Boss stores and Sur La Table, an upscale cookware store.

Groups of shoppers sat at dining tables when a confrontation broke out between two groups of young men in front of a decorative fountain underneath an escalator.

In the frantic moments after the shooting, police detained one of Pickens’ associates, who identified Pickens as the shooter seen dressed in an all-black sweat suit with white stripes on the side, according to an arrest warrant released on Tuesday.

Another man with Pickens was identified as Chrisey Pressley, 19, who was charged in June with carrying a weapon during the altercation, but not with the shooting itself. Pressley, after his arrest in June, also identified Pickens from still photos of the surveillance footage of the shooting, according to the warrant.

Pressley said Norman opened fire after he “started arguing with people he did not know,” the warrant said. Another associate said that Norman “has had disagreements” with the rival group and each “have different gang affiliations in the Opa-locka area.”

Detectives used phone records to place the group together, according to the warrant.

This story was originally published November 16, 2021 at 5:07 PM.