Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Video shows balloons led to shooting scare
Panic caused by 2 popped balloons in Town Center mall
BOCA RATON – The activeshooter scare at Boca Raton’s mall has gotten even stranger.
Video from surveillance cameras, released Thursday, revealed that two popped balloons — not just one — caused a panic that drove crowds from the mall and chased others into hiding in stores.
“There’s an active shooter at the Boca mall,” one frenzied shopper reported to 911, one of over 150 calls to police that day.
In fact, there was no shooter. A janitor popped one balloon with his garbage cart in the food court, minutes before a shopper popped another between his legs in the Hollister clothing store.
Multiple people at the mall Sunday had said they thought they heard more than one “pop.” Footage, later posted on social media, showed a man jerking his head in the direction of the sound and loudly saying, “What was that, a gun?”
The sounds caused shoppers to panic over what they believed was gunfire. Police responded to the chaos as if it was a gunman in the mall.
Up until Thursday afternoon, some believed it was the popping of a single balloon. But police found video of the second balloon after reviewing massive amounts of surveillance footage. In addition to the footage of the balloons Thursday, police also released shoppers’ 911 calls.
Police released copies of 15 of the initial 911 calls. Panicked callers told dispatchers, sometimes in a whisper: “There’s an active shooter at the Boca mall.”
Many others told dispatchers they saw people “running for their lives” and taking shelter in
store backrooms. A Sephora employee said a woman fell and hurt her knee in the scrum. Another caller said a woman fell and hit her head. None said they saw a shooter.
Dispatchers told the callers that they were getting multiple calls about shots fired, and that police were responding. In the last three calls, dispatchers switch from telling callers they have received multiple calls reporting shots fired to mentioning a gun and saying there were shots fired or a shooter on scene. In the calls, the dispatchers said:
■ “We have a report that there is someone at the mall that has a gun or that there are shots fired at the mall.” The dispatcher then asked if a caller has additional information on that, and the caller said, “No, we just saw everybody running. We’re currently hiding in our back room.” Someone whispered “don’t open that door” to someone else in the room.
■ “Listen to me. Take a deep breath. There’s shots fired at the mall. We’ve got several officers responding, it’s possibly coming from the food court area.” The caller said they’re outside the food court, and have customers in the back room. The dispatcher told them to close the doors to the business and try to stay secure while they wait for officers to arrive.
■ “I understand we have a shooter there. Did anybody see what happened?” The caller told them, “Nobody saw what happened but we have somebody in here who fell and hit her head.”