DEJA VU AT MALL
WOMAN WHO WAS THERE FOR RAMPAGE 33 YEARS AGO ALSO WAS THERE SATURDAY
Police huddle outside shooting scene in parking lot of Springfield Mall Saturday. No injuries were reported when shots rang out after a fistfight between two groups inside the mall spilled out into the parking lot.
Barbara Heflin is developing a bad habit of being at the Springfield Mall at the wrong time.
Heflin, of Broomall, said she was going into Macy’s Saturday afternoon for a sale when she heard shots ring out. It was “bad déjà vu” for a similar scene almost 33 years ago to the day, when Heflin pulled into the mall where Sylvia Seegrist was infamously opening fire on patrons Oct. 30, 1985, killing three and wounding seven others.
“When I was running, all I could think was, ‘This is not happening again, it’s not Sylvia Seegrist all over again,’” she said. “It brought back bad memories.”
Luckily, no one was injured in the shooting outside the Ulta Beauty store Saturday afternoon, where police said a confrontation that began inside the mall spilled out into the parking lot and turned potentially lethal.
Police said the fight between two groups of males began on different levels of the mall and became physical near the Macy’s at the opposite side of the mall from where the shooting occurred.
“I was just going into Macy’s and that’s when I heard the first ‘Pow!’” she said. “And then a few seconds stopped, and then I heard ‘Pow pow pow!’”
Heflin said she asked herself, “Why? What’s going on?” then ran to her car with other mall patrons. She described the scene as “bedlam.”
“I got into my car I tried to compose myself and could not believe what I just heard and the pandemonium that was going on,” she said. “As I was making my way to Baltimore Pike to get out with everybody else, I just reflected back that this is not happening, and it just brought back everything from 33 years ago. Just to say, you can never say that it doesn’t happen here, because yes it does happen here, and it did happen here.”
Heflin said she actually tried to get into the wrong car at first, mistaking someone else’s similar vehicle. When Heflin located her own vehicle parked a couple spaces away, she said she encountered a panicked mother with two young children and told them to get into her car.
“I told her, ‘Just get in, get in get in get in!’” said Heflin. “She found her car, her car was actually right in front of mine, and she threw her kids in and then she took off, but that was a sad situation for the mothers with children, infants and … senior citizens that were there.”
Heflin also praised the quick response from local law enforcement, noting she saw police vehicles entering as she was leaving. The mall was evacuated Saturday afternoon and remained closed the remainder of the day as police attempted to determine what had transpired.
Springfield police had reportedly identified a person of interest in the case as of Monday morning, but attempts to reach investigators or Chief Joseph Daly for further details were unsuccessful.