It was a normal Saturday night at work, the mall had been busy all day but things were finally winding down. I was in the back working on putting away clothes, I realized the hall was quiet except for a few people running around. I thought nothing of it since it's a college town and kids fool around a lot. The music in our store was loud and I thought maybe I heard something but once again I brushed it off. All of sudden an armed officer charged into the store.
"WHO WORKS HERE?" he yelled with his weapon held in the air.
My heart stopped. And I weakly responded, "me."
"You need to lock this store down now." He turned around and left without explaining what was going on. My coworker and I ran to the doors and locked them, still unaware of the situation. We had one group of shoppers so we all headed back into the dressings room to hide. Slowly we began seeing reports on Facebook that someone was in the mall with a knife and possibly a gun, who was attacking random people. I felt the fear hit me like a wall. I had so many friends who worked here with me, and many that shopped. I had classmates and roommates who go to the mall all the time. I work at the mall. This place all of a sudden felt so unsafe.
After about 20 minutes of hiding in uncertainty there was a loud banging noise on the door, I jumped out of my seat and peeked around the corner to see another armed officer knocking on the door. He told us to come out of the store and wait in the Food Court to be questioned. At this point we weren't sure how many people had been hurt.
Once we were seated in the Food Court with 100 other people, I overheard a security guard tell a woman, "We aren't sure where the suspect is right now, we think we have him cornered but for now it's best if we keep you all here in a group." This shook me. If they didn't have to assailant in custody why were we all in an open unsecured area? There were a few cops around us but we'd seen many more walk past, all heavily armed. If the assailant wasn't locked in a store he could easily get to us.
People were crying and screaming searching for family members they had been separated from. Everyone was telling their accounts of what happened. A man in a security uniform began stabbing people outside of a store, and then ran across the mall where he continued to stab people before hiding.
This went on for 3 hours and no one knew for sure what had happened or where the suspect was. It wasn't clear if he had a gun or not. Officers were clearing through witnesses and asking everyone what they saw or heard. This was the scariest part: the not knowing. Finally, an officer let us know that we were allowed to leave after handing over our IDs so our presence could be recorded for evidence.
I had friends who weren't there that were terrified. I myself was ashamed that I didn't realize what was going on. By the time we locked our doors the suspect had run past us and already stabbed all of his victims, many shoppers had fled in fear and I hadn't noticed. I could have easily been near the front of the store.
I could have been a victim.
I'm scared for my community and I worry that this isn't the end. I'm scared for the world and that there are sick people out there who are willing to do these things. Luckily all of the victims are expected to survive, but one this is certain this city and it's members will never be the same. We were shown that work isn't safe, it's not even safe to go buy a video game.
