An incident with a gunman that caused panicked shoppers to flee Fort Worth’s Hulen Mall on Christmas Eve started when the suspect dressed as a woman, entered a bathroom and tried to take pictures of a woman under a stall, police said Monday.
Officers were called to the mall on South Hulen Street at about 4:30 p.m. Saturday after receiving calls about a man with a gun.
Nobody was injured and no shots were fired.
Fort Worth police said it started when a woman inside a public bathroom observed a cell phone facing her from under a stall wall and confronted the suspect, who was described as a “male that was dressed to look like a female.”
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The victim followed the suspect out of the mall, police said. A man attempted to intervene and prevent the suspect from leaving. That’s when he reached into his backpack and pulled out a gun, pointing it at the witness, police said. The weapon was later found to be a pepper ball gun.
Bystanders followed the suspect until officers arrested him.
Douglas Egan, 45, was arrested on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and improper video.
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He is being held in the Tarrant County jail Monday on $30,000 bond.
Egan is a registered sex offender and was previously convicted of indecent exposure and indecency with a child.
