More trouble for struggling Triangle Town Center. After shooting, what’s its future?
One day after gunshots rang out inside Triangle Town Center, wounding three people, a fightfight erupted near the food court — violence captured by multiple shoppers and posted on social media.
The once-popular North Raleigh mall continues to lose anchor stores, and customer traffic dropped to a trickle by Monday afternoon.
After a pair of brawls in just two days, can this two-story shopping center survive?
A Friday shooting at the Triangle Town Center mall stemmed from a fight between three 17-year-olds and a 20-year-old mall worker, Raleigh police reported.
The three 17-year-olds confronted the mall worker and assaulted him after an exchange. The mall worker pulled out a gun “at which point shots were fired,” police said in a news release Saturday.
Both the mall worker and one of the 17-year-olds were injured. The two others in the group fled, and one of them was hurt.
The uninjured 17-year-old was released to a parent, while the other three people involved remained at the hospital overnight. Police recovered two handguns at the scene, and they said they’re still investigating.
What Triangle Town Center says
A spokesperson for the mall’s owner, New York-based Summit Properties USA, offered a short statement following the shooting but provided no details.
“We have increased our number of security officers and are instituting additional safety measures to the facility. We continue to work closely with local law enforcement on their investigation and how we can ensure the safety of the property.”
Triangle Town opened for business Saturday, and mall staff said security personnel had been increased by 50%. Witnesses reported security guards broke up a second fight Saturday afternoon without arrests.
The mall had already struggled with empty stores. Both Saks Fifth Avenue and Macy’s have closed there, and its former outdoor pavilion is almost completely vacant.
Few store employees would speak to The N&O Monday, but one kiosk vendor said he thought the violence might deter customers only temporarily until the news dies down.
What shoppers say
The few people inside the mall Monday told The N&O that shoppers will likely shy away from Triangle Town Center in the wake of the violence, but they also noted that both Crabtree Valley Mall and Streets of Southpoint in Durham have experienced shootings.
A shootout at Crabtree Valley Mall in 2024 left 20 cars riddled with bullets. Prosecutors described it as a gang fight.
And in Durham, a 2021 gunfight at Streets at Southpoint left three people injured, including a 10-year-old boy, on Black Friday.
Online, Triangle residents posted doubts about returning.
“They need to just close Triangle Town Center,” wrote a poster, Annie Oakley, on X, the site formerly known as Twitter. “It’s nothing but a thunderdome anymore. There’s still the nicer stores up the hill in a plaza setting, where there’s no quad to serve as a boxing ring.”
And:
“Used to shop at Saks and other stores at Triangle Town Center 20 years ago,” wrote another. “Very upscale and nice! Not any more. We visited Saks about two months ago and it is on the verge of closing, with all upstairs merchandise moved downstairs. Very sad.”
This story was originally published April 20, 2026 at 4:31 PM.