Social media rumors fuel mall lockdown

The Twitter account for Aventura Mall couldn’t keep pace with the social media of its own shoppers. The scramble to flee was already well under way when Aventura management tweeted at 7:58 p.m. on the Saturday before Christmas that police had found no evidence of gunfire but that the mall was nonetheless being evacuated as a precaution.

Thousands had already spent almost an hour trying to escape from one of the busiest shopping centers in Florida. Presents were dropped. Items were knocked over. Some people trampled each other, and children were separated from their parents. Once outside, shoppers spilled into parking lots so jammed that there was little, if any, movement.

Fueling the panic was something that has now become common: an explosion of voices on social media claiming to have heard gunfire that by all police accounts never happened. In one Twitter feed, a selfproclaimed investigative journalist posted a video of people running out of a mall toward a crosswalk as a man approached from the left.

The tweet claimed that the man was holding a gun. That was not at all clear in the murky image. It also wasn’t even clear if the video was of Aventura Mall. Less than an hour after the first call about a possible active shooter reached law enforcement, Aventura police had cleared out the 2.7-million-square-foot retail shopping center. Then a decision was made to keep the popular mall closed for the rest of the Dec. 23 evening, what typically ranks among the busiest shopping days of the year.

Saturday night’s chaos was only the most recent example of social media fueling public fear at large shopping venues and public events spots throughout the nation.

And it’s happened here before, too. In August, shouts of gunfire and videos of panicked visitors at Dolphin Mall in Sweetwater forced the evacuation of that mall. Thousands fled restaurants and retail stores, running through and over each other trying to get away from what turned out to be nothing. And in November, Hialeah’s Westland Mall was closed after false reports of gunfire. For security experts and police, such events have become all too familiar and frequent yet must be responded to swiftly and seriously.

In South Florida, shoppers at Merrick Park in Coral Gables were forced to flee that mall in April when a personal trainer named Abeku Wilson, 33, shot and killed two coworkers at the Equinox fitness club.

Los Angeles-based mall security expert Chris McGoey lays the blame for panic-stricken shoppers squarely on the 24-hour news cycle and the ability for people to quickly spread rumors on the internet. Today, a handful of people with cellphones can force-feed falsehoods into the digital universe, where it can go viral within minutes.

The Aventura Mall incident serves as a prime example. Aventura police Sgt. Chris Goranitis said his officers first received a call about a possible active shooter at Aventura Mall at 7 p.m. Saturday. Goranitis said that even an officer working at the mall claimed to have heard a loud noise of some sort. Officers quickly flooded the city’s most popular attraction, clearing out a retail center where they had previously worked on active-shooter training scenarios, in about 30 minutes.

By 7:10 p.m., however, social media was in full go mode. Twitter and Facebook were alight with unverified videos at the mall and claims by deniers that the police and the media were working hand-in-hand to block out information on a possible terrorist attack.

When nothing was found after sweeping the mall, searching for bullet casings, broken windows or holes in a wall — anything that would suggest a gun had been fired — police made the decision to keep the mall closed and continue to investigate. Eventually, law enforcement said they found no evidence that a shooting had occurred, and the mall reopened on Sunday, the day before Christmas.

“Social media plays a huge role,” Goranitis said. “But I’m happy that nobody was hurt. And I’m happy that the police response was adequate.”