Active shooter scare causes panic at mall
Police find no threat after reports of gunfire at Boca’s Town Center
BOCA RATON —
As they do each Sunday, South Florida shoppers flocked to Boca Raton’s Town Center mall looking for some luxurious finds and lunch at the bustling food court.
But after reports of gunfire spread like wildfire around the 220-store super mall, shoppers panicked, hid in dressing rooms and darted out of the mall in a mass evacuation.
“I heard a quick ‘pop,’ screaming and then a stampede,” said Heather Tebbutt, who sported the sweater she tried on in the fitting room at Pink as she waited in the parking lot.
She said the store employees told her to stay in the fitting room and not to come out. She was then moved to a back room with about 20 of the store’s employees and other shoppers before being evacuated.
Similar stories from frightened shoppers emerged as Boca Raton police investigated reports of gunshots fired at the mall Sunday afternoon. Police said they found no sign shots were fired, but they were still piecing together what happened and looking at security video.
“Some noise went off with some type of bang,” said Boca Raton Police chief Dan Alexander. No arrests
had been made Sunday night.
“We do not have a weapon recovered,” he said.
A man trying to escape the food court area hit his head on a door while fleeing. He was taken to Delray Medical Center; his injuries weren’t considered lifethreatening. Detectives recovered the man’s blood and hair from the door, Alexander said. A few people also suffered minor injuries from trips and falls as they evacuated, he said.
At 9:30 p.m., Boca Police tweeted the mall had been cleared. Shoppers and employees were allowed back in to retrieve belongings and their cars.
One shopper who said she has been stuck inside the mall since 3:15 p.m. sent a tweet about 6 p.m to the police department asking when she and other shoppers would be released.
The department responded, “We don’t have a time frame because evacuation procedures are methodical to ensure everyone’s safety.” The tweet added: “you will be escorted to a debriefing location and then released from the scene.”
The chaos began about 3 p.m. when reports of an active shooter began coming from the busy mall at 6000 Glades Road. Boca Raton Police and other law enforcement from Palm Beach and Broward counties converged on the mall where shoppers described seeing officers with rifles storming into Macy’s, one of the mall’s anchors along with Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s.
At about 4:15 p.m. Boca Police said there was “no active shooter at this time.”
The Simon mall closed early Sunday; plans for Monday remain unknown. A spokesman for the mall referred inquires to police.
Shoppers described scenes filled with panic after they said they heard the sounds of gunshots filling the mall. Other customers heard people shouting “active shooter” and took cover.
A Macy’s employee who declined to give his name said he was working when he heard faint popping sounds, which he said sounded as though it could be near the food court. He saw a stream of customers darting from the store and followed.
Joel Meyer said that his wife Shauna and friends were also inside Macy’s when “people started yelling ‘active shooter’ and people started running out of the store.”
One friend was in the dressing room and fled the store without her clothes, he said.
The women jumped into a stranger’s car who took them to a nearby shopping plaza across the road.
“She is fine,” Meyer said of his wife who was waiting to be picked up in the afternoon.
On Twitter, Rachel Cohn posted her cellphone video of SWAT officers descending on the mall as shoppers like herself scrambled outside into the parking lot.
Cohn, a New York City resident, was inside the Lilly Pulitzer store when she said that people were in a panic. But she found some comfort thanks to store employees.
“I was confused but then got really nervous as the store staff took us by the hands and said ‘OK, everyone follow us, we’re all about to become good friends’ and then they walked us to a safe area and then to the outside,” said Cohn, 25, who is in town visiting her grandmother. “I felt really scared at first that we would be trapped inside, then a ton of relief that we got outside quickly so that we could leave.”
Other shoppers were trapped inside stores as the mall went into lockdown.
Howard Krooks and his wife Robin said they were locked in a staircase at Macy’s.
“At first we sought cover underneath a shoe display, then ran into a hallway for employees that led us to a staircase,” the Parkland resident said in an email. “We were fortunate that a Macy’s employees followed soon after and was able to lock the door to the staircase. We are afraid to go outside.”
The report of gunshots being fired hit too close to home for the Krooks, whose son Noah was good friends with Alex Schachter, one of the 14 students killed Feb. 14 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High last year.
“Never did I imagine that I too would experience the fear of an active shooter situation as my son did at MSD just 18 months ago,” Krooks said. “When is this going to stop?”
Other shoppers echoed his sentiment.
“It’s sad to see that even at a mall we can’t be safe anymore,” said Stephanie Silva, 22. She was walking through a candy store with her 13-year-old sister when she felt a loud boom. Then they dropped to the ground and saw people’s keys, phones and shopping bags falling around them as people ran out of the mall. Kids screamed. They ran out into the parking lot.
“It was the most scary experience of our life,” she said.
Authorities ask anyone with any information or tips to call Boca Raton Police at 561-416-3359.
“Boca remains a safe place,” said Boca Mayor Scott Singer.