Three people have been killed and at least two others wounded in a shooting incident in the US state of Missouri.
It is understood two people died when a gunman opened fire at the Ward Parkway shopping centre in Kansas City.
The man, whose name has not been released, was shot dead by officers at the scene.
Police are investigating whether the murder of a woman around 10km away was linked to the shopping mall killings.
The 67-year-old woman was found shot dead in the kitchen of her home in south Kansas City.
After discovering the victim's car was missing, police put out a description of the vehicle.
An officer who subsequently pulled the car over was injured when the driver pulled out a handgun, shot him through the arm and fled.
Around 15 minutes later a man pulled into a parking lot outside the Ward Parkway Centre and shot two people who were parked on either side of him.
The gunman then went into the mall and wounded at least two other people before being shot by police.
The incident comes nearly two weeks after a Virginia Tech university student killed 32 people and then himself in the worst mass shooting in modern US history.
