Hello from "mits":
Wow! This incident has caused quite a bit of chatter. Fortunately, the police acted quickly and without hesitation.
My aunt had only two days to prepare for her departure back to Germany, and my mother wanted her to see that particular mall...we originally had Sawgrass planned. Now I seldom go to any mall, as a rule. But, my aunt had quite a bit of final shopping to do for her family, gifts from the U.S., apparently our prices are dirt-cheap compared to the costs of goods, there.
Anyway, once we entered the mall, there was no turning back (literally). We were in a virtual bumper to bumper roundabout until we happened upon a great parking space. As I turned into the lot, I heard a car start, and we were immediately accommodated with an parking spot. I have really good luck, in that sense. It doesn't surprise me that someone wouldn't have road rage with the amount of mall traffic.
The incident happened when we were near the JCP entrance in the kids clothing dept. Being so close to the entrance, I heard four rounds, which at that point I said to my mother. "I just heard 4 gunshots". She looked at me funny and mentioned it to my aunt, and they continued to shop. Uh, MOM, I think those were GUNSHOTS..." My aunt looked at me, and asked, "MIAMI VICE?" She doesn't speak English.
I was able to peer outside the doors, which were allowing people in and out, and noticed the police lights and sirens. It wasn't until two or three minutes later that the store alarms went off and they locked the front entrance. Typically, everyone acted as expected. Giddy screaming and laughing, mall personal running through the aisles, people still trying to check out and exit through the doors, etc. My dear aunt ran over to the door with her camera, but the police motioned "no pictures," then the outer doors were rolled down. I was looking for a safe place to duck under in case the shoppers got stupid...
Anyway! I was glad that it didn't turn into long drawn-out thingie.
Being stuck in a packed mall thousands of people would not have been fun, and I would have missed "Dr. Who."
Kudos to the Miami Dade police!
...and, thanks for the kind thoughts.
Mits
Happy 2010.