In this photo taken on Thursday, November 22, 2018, a police officer speaks to a woman after gunshots were fired around Thanksgiving night at the Riverchase Galleria in Hoover, Ala.(Photo: Carol Robinson, AP)

HOOVER, Alaska – Protesters marched Saturday in a mall in Alabama, where police killed a black man whom they later acknowledged as not being the trigger of the night of Thanksgiving that hurt two people.

An officer shot and killed 21-year-old Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford, Jr. of Hueytown, while he was responding to Thursday's shooting at the mall. Police said Bradford was fleeing with a weapon.

Hoover police had first told reporters that Bradford had shot a teenager at the mall, but then retracted it.

"We knew it was wrong," said stepmother Cynthia Bradford on hearing that the police accused her of having shot. She described her step-son, who was passing by E.J., as a respectful young man, son of an officer of the Birmingham Police Department.

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The Hoover Police captain, Gregg Rector, said that investigators now believe that more than two people are involved in the initial fight that preceded the shooting and that "at least one gunman" is still on the run and could be responsible.

Police said that even though Bradford "may have been involved in an aspect of the altercation, he probably did not shoot the cartridges that injured the 18-year-old victim."

More than 200 protesters, including several family members, chanted "E.J" and "no justice, no peace" as they paraded in front of Christmas customers at the mall. They observed a minute of silence outside a shoe store where Bradford was killed.

"They should never have killed him," said Emani Smith, Bradford's 7-year-old half-sister, while other family members were crying.

Family members shared their horror of discovering through social media that Bradford was dead. The video circulated on Bradford's social media stretched in a pool of blood on the floor of the mall.

Carlos Chaverst, an activist in Birmingham who staged the protest, said that when the authorities acknowledged that the person killed was not the shooter, "it sent us an uproar". He said he wanted family justice and called on police to broadcast a body camera and surveillance footage. More protests will be held in the future to hold officials accountable, he added.

"When we discovered this incident, questions were asked during the jump. People were unhappy that one man had been shot dead by the police in our own backyard, "he said.

The incident began Thanksgiving night with a brawl and gunfire in the suburbs of Birmingham, at the Riverchase Galleria, a crowded shopping mall of Black Friday bargain hunters. An 18-year-old man was shot twice and a 12-year-old was shot in the back.

The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency is investigating the incident since it involves a shootout involving an officer. The Hoover Police Department conducts its own internal investigation.

The officer who shot Bradford was put on administrative leave while the authorities were investigating the shooting. The agent's name has not been made public. Officers were not injured.

Bradford is photographed on Facebook in an army uniform and describes himself as a combat engineer. An army spokesman, however, told the Washington Post that he had "never had advanced individual training" and had not therefore served.

The video posted on social media by buyers shows a chaotic scene as buyers fled the mall, which closed Thursday night.

Lexi Joiner, a witness, told Al.com that she was shopping with her mother when the shots began. Joiner said he had heard six or seven shots and was ordered, along with other buyers, to a food cupboard to go to the shelter.

"It was terrifying," said Joiner.

A woman who described herself as the 12-year-old's injured mother said on social media that she was shopping on Black Friday with other family members when the shooting occurred, and did not immediately realize that the pain in her back was from a bullet.

"She was suffering a lot, but very brave and positive as always," wrote the mother after seeing the girl when she arrived at the hospital.

Hoover police said Friday morning that the girl was in a stable state.

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