The Fairfield Spirit Halloween shooting turned a last-minute Halloween shopping trip into a crime scene on Friday night, 30 October 2026, when gunfire broke out inside a Spirit Halloween store at Solano Town Center in Fairfield, California. One person was killed and six others were injured, three of them critically, police said. The shooter remained at large on Saturday as detectives interviewed witnesses, reviewed mall security footage and worked with the FBI, and with no suspect description and no motive yet released, the investigation is still in its early hours.

The shooting happened on the eve of Halloween, when the seasonal costume store was busy with shoppers making last-minute preparations for the holiday, CNN reported. The Fairfield Spirit Halloween shooting drew a response from officers across the county within hours, and police called it a horrific shooting and described the store as a very active crime scene.

What happened in the Fairfield Spirit Halloween shooting

Officers responded at about 8:30 p.m. local time on Friday, 30 October, to reports of a shooting inside the Spirit Halloween store at Solano Town Center, the Fairfield Police Department said in a news release. The Fairfield Spirit Halloween shooting unfolded inside the store, and seven people had been struck by gunfire. One person was pronounced dead at the scene, and six others were taken to hospitals.

Fairfield Police Chief Dan Marshall told reporters late on Friday that the shooting appeared to be isolated to the Spirit Halloween store. The store occupies a space once held by Best Buy inside a mall of about 130 shops and restaurants. Marshall said detectives were speaking with witnesses and diligently working to identify the suspect responsible.

SWAT teams swept through the mall to check whether a shooter was hiding inside, including the Regal Edwards movie theatre, where about a dozen people had been watching a showing of the horror film Halloween, the New York Post reported. Officers from Suisun City Police, the California Highway Patrol, Vacaville, Dixon and Benicia police, and the Solano County Sheriff's Office all assisted at the scene.

The FBI's Sacramento office said it was deploying its Evidence Response Team to assist the Fairfield Police Department. "This is still a very active crime scene," police said in a statement. "Detectives are speaking with witnesses and diligently working to identify the suspect responsible for this horrific shooting."

Fairfield Spirit Halloween shooting victims: 1 dead, 6 injured

The Fairfield Spirit Halloween shooting claimed one life at the scene. One person died after being struck by gunfire inside the store. Six others were rushed to local hospitals, and at least three of them were in critical condition, according to the Fairfield Police Department. The victims' names and ages have not been released, and no updated hospital assessments had been made public as of the latest police briefing.

The six injured victims were taken to area hospitals by ambulance. Police have not said which hospitals received them, and the identities of all seven victims remain undisclosed while families are notified and the investigation continues.

The search for the shooter

As of the latest police briefing, no arrest had been made and no suspect description had been released. The Fairfield Spirit Halloween shooting remains under active investigation, and police have not confirmed whether one person or more than one fired the shots, and no motive has been established publicly. Detectives are interviewing witnesses and reviewing surveillance footage from the mall as they try to establish how the shooting began and whether the victims knew the shooter.

Anyone with information has been asked to contact the Fairfield Police Department at 707-428-7600 or by email at [email protected]. Police said updates would be provided through the department's social media pages as the investigation develops.

Solano Town Center and the Spirit Halloween store

Solano Town Center is a shopping mall at 1350 Travis Boulevard in Fairfield, about 45 to 50 miles north-east of San Francisco and close to Interstate 80. The mall holds more than 130 shops and restaurants, according to its website. The Spirit Halloween store where the Fairfield Spirit Halloween shooting took place sits in the space once occupied by Best Buy, and some reports gave a Gateway Boulevard address for the same location.

Spirit Halloween is the United States' largest Halloween retailer. It was founded in 1983 by Joe Marver, who opened the first store in the Castro Valley Village Shopping Center in California's East Bay. Spencer's bought the business in 1999, when it had about 60 seasonal stores. The chain now operates roughly 1,550 to 1,600 stores each autumn, open for eight to 10 weeks a year, and employs more than 52,000 seasonal workers. Its stores take short leases in vacant big-box premises and typically close a few days after Halloween, making the final weekend of October its busiest trading period of the year.

What is still unknown about the Fairfield Spirit Halloween shooting

Four central questions remain unanswered. Police have not said who fired the shots, or whether more than one person was involved. No motive has been released, and it is not known whether any of the victims were targeted or knew the shooter. Police have also not said how many shots were fired or what type of weapon was used. The victims have not been publicly identified. Until detectives release more detail, the confirmed facts are the toll, the place, the time and the scale of the response, and everything else about the shooting remains under investigation.

What happens next

The investigation continues through the weekend, with detectives interviewing witnesses, studying mall camera footage and waiting for updates on the three victims in critical condition. The Fairfield Police Department has said it will publish updates on its social media pages, and the FBI's Evidence Response Team is assisting with the scene. Halloween itself falls on Saturday, 31 October, the day after the shooting. The Fairfield Spirit Halloween shooting is the latest deadly shooting at a public place in the United States to draw a major police response.

Earlier in October, 11 people were shot near a stadium in Tallahassee during homecoming weekend, in the FAMU homecoming shooting. Nine people were killed earlier in 2026 in a mass shooting in Erie, Pennsylvania.

Sources: CNN; USA Today; People; New York Post; The Sun; Fairfield Police Department; FBI Sacramento; Wikipedia.