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'It was traumatizing': Shoppers take cover when argument in parking lot leads to shooting of 2 in Land O' Lakes

Deputies detained two people at the shopping center.

LAND O' LAKES, Fla. — Two people were sent to the hospital in Land O' Lakes after a shooting took place in a shopping center's parking lot, the sheriff's office reports.

Pasco County deputies responded at around 5:45 p.m. to the Village Lakes Center parking lot near the intersection of U.S. 41 and State Road 54, on reports of a shooting. 

"There were some people running for the bathroom, but I didn't want to be caught in the bathroom, so I went out the back door," Peggy, a shopper in Bealls who ran for cover, said.

"I hid in a drainage ditch until a helicopter fly by and saw me," Peggy said. "Two patrol cars pulled up and policed pulled me out."

Deputies rushed to get her to safety. Shell casings, broken glass and cars riddled with bullets were all left behind after investigators say an argument between four adults at the Village Lakes Shopping Center turned violent.

Early investigation suggests that an argument between four adults who knew each other took place, it escalated and two of them were hit by gunfire. 

"The two individuals that were shot were taken to a hospital, and the two remaining adults are detained," the Pasco County Sheriff's Office said in a news release.

"Out of nowhere you just see everyone running," Yan Priyampllskiy, the manager at the pizza shop a few doors down, said. "We let a girl sit inside cause I'm not going to let her just keep running."

He says he saw a man out front shooting across the parking lot. He heard seven shots and watched the man speed off in a truck.

"Craziness honestly," Priyampllskiy said. "The fact that you would shoot your gun towards women children like you're in an open field? No. That's crazy. That's real crazy, you just can't do that."

Deputies have not yet announced the conditions of the two people that were taken to the hospital.

There is no public safety threat at this time.

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