Shooting at local mall. While we were there!
November 22, 2008
I don’t mind some excitement in my life, but sometimes too much is too much.
Tara and I were going out shopping today, and one of our friends wanted to tag along with us. We thought out quota of excitement for the day would be a bunch of film trucks around the Seattle Library – once you’ve seen them around LA, they are hard to miss – so we stopped to see what they were up to (a car commercial for Toyota). So, after that we headed down to the Southcenter mall.
We were all hungry, so headed directly to the food court. Just as we had finished eating, and started having a chat, there was one very loud bang. It sounded like something in one of the restaurant kitchens being dropped or malfunctioing. Then, about 5 seconds later, another one – right underneath us where we were sitting. Everyone paused, then hit the deck under tables. It’s really strange that pause while everyone realizes what that sound was and equates it to gunfire.
I must say that security and police were really quick to respond. Mall security and police were there in an instance detaining 2 people and clearing the area. I got up to have a look around to see if we should stay put, or if people were evacuating (there was no more gunfire, or otherwise I would have done something different). Initially it wasn’t clear where people were supposed to be heading, and there was lots of people wandering around, so I ushered us into a store, away from everything, while the staff locked the doors.
After a while it seems that it had calmed down somewhat. People were being walked out on the 2nd floor where we were, while the 1st floor (where the shooting happened) was still under lockdown. We decided that it’s probably best for us to leave while we could and there was a clear path for us to do so. Seeing the food court was quite eerie; everything left, pushchairs, kids toys, chairs over turned. I should have taken a photo or two, but it didn’t feel "right" (and didn’t want to hang around – photo above is one I found online – you can just about see something happening at the top)
King 5 has some good coverage of the incident. I’m reading the comments and "witnesses" in various news and I love how some are saying 2 or 3 shots, while others saying 4-5. It was 2 – I can’t see how anyone (that was there) would have not know that – it’s such a distinctive sound. Also don’t get people saying that the mall security was slow and inadequate, and they should do something about this – this isn’t something that you can really protect from, it’s such a rare occurrence (or perhaps not at this place), and that the security/police that were there acted really quickly – I’m genuinely surprised at how quick a) the initial incident was covered and b) the number of responders got there in such a short space of time.
Took a quick peek while heading out and could see two guys cuffed on the floor with police standing over them, and one guy, clearly shot in the stomach, with paramedics working on him. News reports are saying two people shot and the gunman still at large, but it seems that we could get out quite easily and there wasn’t any serious remaining threat or would have stayed put. I’m not going to say anything about the nature of the shooting as that would be just conjecture on my part (we heard a few people talking about it/why, but don’t actually know anything), and I’m actually quite pissed off with whoever would take a gun to a crowded mall – the level of idiocy there is astounding, and seem to be getting more common.
So, not the usual kind of security I normally write about. Embed of local news below.
Posted in Misc
November 22nd, 2008 at 7:35 pm
David Lindsay said:reading the title, i was wondering if it was a movie shooting or a gun shooting… looks like it was both. scary having something like that happen right under you. glad that you all are safe!
November 22nd, 2008 at 11:40 pm
Mike said:Thanks David – everyone fine as we wasn’t really wrapped up in it all because we were on level 2, and the shooting was on the ground. However, you don’t want to be *anywhere* near that. Glad that we got out as quickly as we did becuase some people were kept inside for nearly 5 hours until the police got to them
November 24th, 2008 at 6:38 am
redb0ne said:Last I heard of this one person was killed and another seriously wounded, don’t know much more. What were the speculations on his motives or was he just looney?
“I’m actually quite pissed off with whoever would take a gun to a crowded mall – the level of idiocy there is astounding, and seem to be getting more common.”
Are you referring to people legally carrying concealed weapons or people like this lunatic that just fire into a crowd?
If I am a mentally stable individual with qualified shooting skills, there is no reason I shouldn’t be able to carry a concealed firearm into a mall or anywhere else. I am of no risk to anyone else short criminals, but I for one do not want to be made into a victim simply because someone broke the law. It is incidents like this that drive my desire to carry everywhere that is legal for me to do so.
There was actually an incident a year ago at this very mall where a lady was detained for carrying a firearm in a legal manner and harassed by police for doing so.
November 24th, 2008 at 7:41 am
Nick said:redb0ne: I hope no one bites your gun-nut flamebait.
Mike: How you described the “eye-witness” accounts is a common occurrence. Eye-witness accounts are so unreliable that it is often hard to determine what actually happened due to the varying perceptions, etc. While you firmly believe it was only 2 shots, a person who reported hearing 4 may believe it just as strongly and it is often hard to tell who is right. I have actually taken this into account in my own experiences and allowed for the fact that my own memory/senses could be wrong. Its an interesting phenomenon nonetheless.
November 24th, 2008 at 8:03 am
redb0ne said:Sorry, you are right.
I realized after sitting on this for a while that it was inappropriate and was a bit flamebait-ish. I didn’t intend to distract from what happened, apologies.
November 24th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Mike said:@redbOne: No apologies necessary – I realize that my writing was a bit open-ended. What I mean is anyone that would take a gun into a crowded area with any intention of using it. I appreciate that some people have concealed carry permits, and would hope that they use better judgement if they do have to use their weapon – threat or no threat, you have to very carefully, and very quickly judge if you are adding to the situation or not. From what I could see, the place was pretty crowded, and even a slight mis-aim would have easily hit another person. It more the recklessness of it that pisses me off, but being originally from the UK I see very few reasons for anyone other than police/security to carry a gun.
From what is being reported, one of the victims, a *16 year old* died at the hospital. The other is serious but stable. Still no word on the gunman. I will venture this bit of conjecture as you asked – from what we heard/understand was that there was an argument, pushing/shoving/fists, and someone said it was over a bag (although it’s been reported in the news/comments from victim relatives, as a gang-related thing as well).
@Nick: I totally understand the psychology behind it – I’ve actually been part of an experiment at uni to measure the response (pick up on some details, but not all). However, number of shots is quite a simple (and distinctive) thing to get right.
November 27th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
Becky said:I’m really glad that you and Tara are safe, it must have been awful, I didn’t know anything about it until the kids at school told me and they said that it had been another terrorist attack with someone opening fire in a shopping mall, i’ve just been watching the news too and it seems like the worlds going mad what with people shooting and bombing each other. Take it easy both of you.
B.