Yesterday my wife and I were at La Plaza Mall. We were picking up some cakes at the new Carlo's Bakery that opened up there for her birthday party. As we were in line, I started noticing people looking around with concern and then running towards the door. My first thoughts were that they were part of a Mexican shopping tour group, which is very common here, who were about to miss their bus. There were others in the store and in the area who didn't seem concerned at all. But then a man came around the corner by the bakery, holding his crying kids tightly saying, "There's a shooter, get out!" My wife didn't see or hear that so I just grabbed her and said, "Let's go. Now." She was confused but she heard the panic in my voice and followed me out.
Outside, the police were showing up in force, but at the opposite end of the mall. Other people were just arriving at this mall entrance and walking in. There was absolutely no police or security presence at our end of the mall. As people were milling about, I heard them talking about what was supposedly going on inside. I heard that there was a shooting at the food court, that there were 3 shooters running around randomly killing people, that there were shooters picking people off from the garage, that there was one guy with a machine gun, etc. I just got my wife to the car, which was thankfully nearby, and left the mall -my wife is freaking out at this point and my heart and mind are racing. Weirdly, traffic leaving the mall is sparse and we made a quick exit.
My wife was checking Twitter and Facebook and all kinds of stories were going around. The Sheriff's Department put out a message to avoid the area due to an active shooter. People were reporting all kinds of stuff.
Well . . . turns out there was no shooting at all. It was 7 guys who stormed into a high end jewelry store. It isn't even clear that they were armed with real guns; I've seen reports that they had BB Guns. They smashed a glass case and perhaps that triggered the reports of shooting. It looks to me like one of the stupidest robbery attempts ever. How did they think they would get away with it?
I just thought this was an interesting study in how these kinds of things develop. Initial reports cannot be trusted. Even the Sheriff's department got it wrong. Not even within the mall itself did there seem to be good communication to the stores.
Outside, the police were showing up in force, but at the opposite end of the mall. Other people were just arriving at this mall entrance and walking in. There was absolutely no police or security presence at our end of the mall. As people were milling about, I heard them talking about what was supposedly going on inside. I heard that there was a shooting at the food court, that there were 3 shooters running around randomly killing people, that there were shooters picking people off from the garage, that there was one guy with a machine gun, etc. I just got my wife to the car, which was thankfully nearby, and left the mall -my wife is freaking out at this point and my heart and mind are racing. Weirdly, traffic leaving the mall is sparse and we made a quick exit.
My wife was checking Twitter and Facebook and all kinds of stories were going around. The Sheriff's Department put out a message to avoid the area due to an active shooter. People were reporting all kinds of stuff.
Well . . . turns out there was no shooting at all. It was 7 guys who stormed into a high end jewelry store. It isn't even clear that they were armed with real guns; I've seen reports that they had BB Guns. They smashed a glass case and perhaps that triggered the reports of shooting. It looks to me like one of the stupidest robbery attempts ever. How did they think they would get away with it?
I just thought this was an interesting study in how these kinds of things develop. Initial reports cannot be trusted. Even the Sheriff's department got it wrong. Not even within the mall itself did there seem to be good communication to the stores.
via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2veSpDw
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