Police converge on Burlington Mall after armed man report; weapon turns out to be BB gun

By John R. Ellement, Martin Finucane and Zachary T. Sampson, Globe Staff and Globe Correspondent

Burlington and State Police converged on the Burlington Mall area this afternoon after someone reported a man possibly armed with a shotgun. But it turned out there was no “active shooter” and the weapon involved was a BB gun, State Police said.

Officers responded to the mall shortly after noon because a woman reported she saw a man walking through the parking lot with a shotgun, Burlington police said in a statement. According to the statement, several local police departments and State Police then secured a perimeter around the building and searched the parking lot and cars leaving the mall.

Burlington police said between 30 and 45 minutes later, a man came to the police station because he believed he was one of the suspects the officers were looking for. He said he had just received a BB rifle and a round package of BB’s from a friend in the mall parking lot. While he and his friend drove away, he noticed the commotion and thought someone might have seen the transfer of the weapon between him and his friend.

He gave an accurate description of the suspect, who police learned was a 37-year-old Burlington man, and the woman who first called in the incident confirmed that he was the person she saw with the gun.

No charges are being filed at this time, Burlington police said.

Last April, the mall was evacuated and heavily armed police scoured the building following reports that an armed man was making his way through the shopping center.

Police later learned that the concern was raised because a man walking through the building had an umbrella in his backpack with a handle designed to look like a samurai sword handle.