A shooting inside a Spirit Halloween store at the Solano Town Center in Fairfield, California, left a pregnant mother dead and six other people wounded on Friday night, according to ABC7 Bay Area. Fairfield police identified the deceased victim on Saturday as 31-year-old Constance Hages, and family members told investigators she was expecting a child at the time of her death. The Solano County Coroner's Office will confirm that information after an examination, police said.
Fire crews were dispatched to the costume shop at the mall, located at 1350 Travis Blvd. near Interstate 80, at roughly 8:30 p.m., ABC7 Bay Area reports. Three of the wounded remained in critical condition at local hospitals, Fairfield Police Chief Dan Marshall said.
Why it matters
The violence struck the largest enclosed shopping mall in Solano County during the final weekend before Halloween, a period when costume shops like the Spirit Halloween outlet draw heavy foot traffic. The death of a pregnant mother of four has shaken a community that, in the words of one resident, was already bracing for the holiday under a cloud of gun violence. The case also remains unresolved: as of the weekend, the suspect had not been taken into custody, and police were still asking the public for help.
What police say happened
According to ABC7 Bay Area, Fairfield police said preliminary information gathered during the investigation indicates the gunfire stemmed from a targeted incident involving a single suspect inside the Spirit Halloween store. Authorities have not publicly described a motive or released further details about the person they are seeking.
The wounded span a wide range of ages. Three men — ages 16, 19 and 32 — were listed in critical condition. A 23-year-old man was hospitalized in stable condition. Two other men, aged 19 and 43, were treated and released from the hospital, police said.
Witnesses described a chaotic scene outside the store. Michelle Marie Anderson, a Fairfield resident, told ABC7 Bay Area she was dropping her niece at the mall when she heard a young person calling for help. The youth appeared to have been shot and was outside the store, moving away from the gunfire, she said. "Everybody was running," Anderson recalled. She also voiced grief about the timing of the attack, telling the station, "This is what Fairfield is looking like before Halloween."
Store responds as search continues
Spirit Halloween said in a statement to ABC7 Eyewitness News that the company was deeply saddened by the incident and that its thoughts were with the victims' families. The retailer said it is cooperating fully with local law enforcement and will defer to Fairfield police for further information while the investigation is active. The store will stay closed until further notice, the company said.
Local officials also weighed in. A statement provided to the station said the speaker and their team were monitoring the tragedy and praying for the seven victims, their families and the broader Fairfield community still coping with the aftermath.
Separate outlets, including KCRA and ABC10, reported that investigators were continuing to search for the suspect and that new details were emerging as the inquiry progressed. ABC7 Bay Area did not report an arrest.
Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to contact the Fairfield Police Department at 707-428-7600 or to email [email protected].
What to watch next: whether police announce an arrest or name a suspect, and whether the coroner's examination formally confirms the family's account that Hages was pregnant when she was killed.
