Thursday, December 19th 2019, 10:05 pm
Shoppers at Penn Square Mall told News 9 when they heard shots Thursday, they knew they had to get to safety. The problem was, they weren’t sure whether they were running away from the danger or running toward it.
Tabby Berry was checking out after doing some Christmas shopping two stores down from the shooting.
“As I was paying, all the sudden I heard pop, pop, pop. I didn’t hear the fourth one. And the security guard said run. And everyone just ran,” said Berry. “There was no screaming. A lot of, you could just feel the floor vibrating from people running. And we all ran and just hid.”
Berry said it was chaos.
“You don’t know if I get back here, am I going to get penned in here, and we’re just going to be game for him? I didn’t know. I had no idea. I didn’t know if it was a personal thing or if it was a terrorist thing. I had no idea what was going on,” said Berry.
Berry wound up hiding in a storage room with about 30 other people.
“The people that were in there, there was a girl that was probably 18, 19. She was having an absolute nervous breakdown. You know, crying. So, you’re trying to comfort people and let them know that your safe now. There was a lot of people in there that was, they were just traumatized,” recalled Berry.
“Screaming, crying, calling people on the phone. Having to sit on the floor. They’re just panicky. It was just, it was traumatizing,” she continued.
Berry said she will never forget the confusion. The fear. And the feeling of helplessness.
“You think about your kids. You think about your grandkids. You think about my husband. And I thought I may not come out of this,” said Berry.
Berry said police came in after a few minutes and escorted shoppers out of the storage room.
December 19th, 2019
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