In case you didn't hear (mostly, if you are out of WA state) there was a shooting at the Southcenter mall (Tukwila, WA) today around 3:30pm. I was there with my daughter. We were grabbing a bite before we would go see a movie.
We were in the food court upstairs, right above where the shooting happened. There was a loud noise, people started looking at each other, I was telling myself "is this what I think it is"?, then, after a few seconds a 2nd shot was heard. People started running. I didn't want to do that because I was afraid of Nati and I being trampled. So, I took her off the chair and we laid low by the wall, using the chair to hide us (it had our coats) and my body as a shield for her. Another family of 4 were at the table next to us, so I just observed the father to see what he would do. After about 1-2 mins we stood up. The family left. As I saw people leaving from the movie theater above us, I put our coats on and gathered our food and we went out.
The scariest was while we were waiting outside, I saw a police officer getting his automatic riffle ready and taking off running. That's when I decided it was time for us to head to our car and leave.
I was parked at the opposite side of the shooting, so it actually made leaving the mall easier.
There is one person dead and one injured. The police searched the mall store by store for hours in an effort to find the gunman. But it would have been really easy for him to sneak out with the crowd as thousands of people were exiting after the incident.
Anyway, I am grateful that nothing happened to us and that I was able to keep cool and collected to think clearly and protect my child. Scary thing, though.
We were in the food court upstairs, right above where the shooting happened. There was a loud noise, people started looking at each other, I was telling myself "is this what I think it is"?, then, after a few seconds a 2nd shot was heard. People started running. I didn't want to do that because I was afraid of Nati and I being trampled. So, I took her off the chair and we laid low by the wall, using the chair to hide us (it had our coats) and my body as a shield for her. Another family of 4 were at the table next to us, so I just observed the father to see what he would do. After about 1-2 mins we stood up. The family left. As I saw people leaving from the movie theater above us, I put our coats on and gathered our food and we went out.
The scariest was while we were waiting outside, I saw a police officer getting his automatic riffle ready and taking off running. That's when I decided it was time for us to head to our car and leave.
I was parked at the opposite side of the shooting, so it actually made leaving the mall easier.
There is one person dead and one injured. The police searched the mall store by store for hours in an effort to find the gunman. But it would have been really easy for him to sneak out with the crowd as thousands of people were exiting after the incident.
Anyway, I am grateful that nothing happened to us and that I was able to keep cool and collected to think clearly and protect my child. Scary thing, though.
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gray138:
that's a really scary thing hun!!!!!!!!! i'm so glad you were strong enough to handle it and to protect your little darling!!!! 
americanjunky:
I heard nothing about this until this morning, no TV yet on the bay. So glad you and yours are fine, must have scared the hell out of both of you. Can't even imagine.