"Until we arrest the other person involved it is difficult to say," said Frank T. Pasquarello, Cambridge police spokesperson. "We are pursuing leads, and hopefully they'll pan out."

The murder was the second murder in Cambridge in 1999. On Sept. 18, a 30-year-old Dorchester man was shot and killed outside the Hi-Fi Pizza store near Central Square following an argument with the occupants of a Jeep.

Two murders is about average for Cambridge, which also saw two murders in 1998 and 1997.

Police said that Chatelain's murder is in one sense typical of crimes committed at the mal--though committed in Cambridge, parties involved were not of Cambridge.

CPD arrested 199 people last year at the CambridgeSide Galleria, most for crimes related to shoplifting. More than half of those arrested were from Boston, while only 16 percent of the arrests were of Cantabrigians.

Similarly, police responded to three brawls at the mall involving Boston youths.

Earlier on Christmas Eve, a "chain-grab" robbery, where young males stole a chain from a woman, occurred at CambridgeSide. Pasquarello said that robbery is believed to be unrelated to Chatelain's murder.