A mother of 2 is recounting the harrowing moments she and different consumers huddled for protection as a mass taking pictures spread out on the Allen Premium Outlets in Allen, Texas, on Saturday afternoon.
Racquel Lee informed ABC News she used to be buying groceries on my own when a “spraying” of gunfire rang out.
“I see a woman running in the parking lot, or trying to get to the parking lot. And she’s by our window — and I see her get gunned down,” Lee mentioned.
“All of us were just paralyzed,” she mentioned. “I just remember crouching down. … There was nowhere to run in the store.”
People carry their arms as they go away a shopping mall after a taking pictures, May 6, 2023, in Allen, Texas.
LM Otero/AP
Lee mentioned a shop affiliate then led her and 11 different consumers to an worker house to cover because the sound of the pictures moved nearer.
“We’re huddled in this bathroom closet. And one of the men in the bathroom closet was trying to open the door [to get the employee, who hadn’t joined them in the safe area], and we kept begging him not to,” Lee mentioned. “Shots are still going on. So in my mind, we’re next. He’s coming in here, and we’re trying to tell him, ‘Close the door.’ And he said, ‘I have to go get her.’ I didn’t realize [the employee] wasn’t with us.”
“Everyone’s trying to call 911,” Lee mentioned. “No one could dial out and so I connect to WiFi from a store nearby, and I FaceTimed my husband at like 3:40 [p.m.] and I tried to text my family. And I said ‘Please, I love you. I hope you get this.'”
She mentioned the crowd spent no less than 90 mins in that destroy room, now not realizing if the taking pictures had ended.
Cars are nonetheless within the parking space of the Allen Premium Outlets mall, May 7, 2023 in Allen, Texas.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
“You’re thinking, ‘Oh God, we’re going to be next,'” she mentioned. “I started praying. I was rocking on my knees and praying.”
“Everybody was just kind of having their own moment trying to reach loved ones,” she mentioned. “I’m trying to text my family for what I thought was my last moments.”
Lee mentioned she texted her husband: “Please tell everyone I love them. I can’t die like this.”
Lee mentioned the crowd of 12 strangers got here in combination to give a boost to each and every different.
“Every shot, you’re just, like, twitching. And I start crying, and someone’s petting my back. Then they start crying, I’m petting their back,” she mentioned. “It didn’t matter what nationality, race, religion, color person you were. It was just everyone … everyone just collectively being in this moment together.”
Law enforcement sooner or later opened the door and informed them to position their arms up and are available out, Lee mentioned.
“You just see bodies, bags, blood, bullets,” Lee mentioned. “It felt like a war zone. … I can’t unsee it.”
Eight sufferers have been killed via the alleged gunman, who died after a war of words with police.
“That’s the hardest — that you survive, that you made it out. But you relive it and you think of faces,” she defined.
Lee mentioned she’s determined to search out the shop worker who ushered Lee and 11 different consumers to the workforce room to cover.
“I’m really trying to find the store associate’s family. I’m thinking about how she saved — that’s the part that really upsets me, that I don’t know if she’s alive,” she mentioned.
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