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I was in the mall (my office is 5 mins away) when this shooting occurred a few stores over. Heard the shot, training kicked in - herded everyone, dove for cover behind cabinets. On the floor behind cover when I made this video. Pure chaos. Just left.
#aventura #aventuramall
#aventura #aventuramall
I don& #39;t scare easily and I think somewhere along the line I lost the genes that make me panic. But I have to say, the first time that something traumatic happens, some of what you know & learn tends to go out the window. The children in this traumatic event is the saddest part 
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Living and working close to this international mall for so many years, I know pretty much every part of it. Today was the day that people realized that the food court has a large entrance from the garage. Yet most were running in the opposite direction - away from safety.
It& #39;s my favorite entrance because the Tesla superchargers are 1 flr down and you can enter the mall from that side through stairs, cross the street (Serafina restaurant) and enter - passing Tesla showroom & the new Apple express store.
After I heard the shot there was no way to make it to the rear entrance because chaos had ensued as nobody knew what happened. It& #39;s weird how people knew what a gun shot sounded like - and so several yelled gun!
Knowing the entrance was behind me - and blocked by people rushing toward me - I instinctively turned around and toward the far wall past a few vendors - with people tripping and falling, kids screaming amid the bedlam.
I had no plans to die today; not after surviving 4 yrs of a despot POTUS, a crippling pandemic, and 2 separate incidents of Pfizer vaccine side-effects. But being cornered & helpless - with a group of strangers, I felt that if a gunman came back there, he was going to be on video
Only then did I take out my phone and started recording. I couldn& #39;t see above the cabinets, though some people simply wouldn& #39;t listen to my advice to stay behind cover in groups. If a gunman came around, he would have had to shoot from behind or through the cabinets.
Either way, with my video running, I felt that I could at least grab a view of his face - if he happened to come back there. That& #39;s why I kept the video trained in that direction - and never broke cover (by peering above the cabinet).
At some point I realized that people not heeding advice to stay down & behind cover were likely to get me killed. At that point, I told my friend "Let& #39;s go" (you hear it in the vid) - and made a dash for the exit entrance to the garage, picking up a fallen lady along the way.
I dread to think how this day would have turned out if this gunman (who did shoot someone) happened to be a mass shooter out to kill random innocent people. Would I have done anything different? No. I knew where the exit was and that heading there at the onset was a bad idea.
Plus, with people rushing toward me gave the impression that the shot was coming from where people were running from - and toward me. So the first thing that came to mind was seek shelter in place, maintain and don& #39;t break cover until it was reasonably safe to do so.
I can& #39;t even begin to describe the chaos. It& #39;s the most heartbreaking thing I have ever witnessed. Moms, kids, yelling & screaming, falling, tripping, kids - lost in the fray - amid the chaos and running around blindly in search of their parents.
An older lady my friend and I helped up, just looked at me with tearful eyes, unable to even speak as I grabbed her by the upper arm, cradled her in front me and hustled her through the exit doors to the garage. I wonder if she would remember me tonight.
We have come to live with this sort of thing through third-party accounts and media reports. You never - ever - once consider what would happen and what you would do if you were ever in that situation. Today, I got to find out. I think I did OK.
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We now know that the shooting happened in the Hugo Boss store - which I had walked past barely 5 mins earlier. https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="đł" title="Errötetes Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Errötetes Gesicht">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="đ±" title="Vor Angst schreiendes Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Vor Angst schreiendes Gesicht"> https://www.local10.com/news/local/2021/05/08/police-respond-to-aventura-mall-after-report-of-gunfire/">https://www.local10.com/news/loca...
