Employees, Customers Share Frightening Accounts of What Happened After Shooting at Murray Mall

MURRAY, Utah – As police search for three suspects after a shooting at the Fashion Place Mall Sunday afternoon, people who were inside at the time are sharing their accounts of the terrifying moments.

“It’s petrifying. It’s absolutely terrifying to be in a situation like this,” said Kimberly Brown. “It’s scary. You just don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Arms raised in the air, with the shock of what just happened still running through their minds, hundreds of employees and customers were escorted out of the mall, groups at a time.

Each person had a different story to tell.

“Five and a half years of working at this mall and I’ve never seen anything like this,” said an employee of Red Rock.

“It was scary, especially being there with my daughter,” said Stacy Davis through tears. “I was just freaked out. I was trying not to freak out because I didn’t want to scare my daughter but it was scary. I didn’t know what was going to happen.”

People at the mall first heard the fire alarm and then, mayhem.

“About two minutes later there was just a bunch of police with AR-15s running through the mall,” said Brown, breaking down.

“Immediately we saw two officers run through, they had large guns, and they started yelling for everyone to run outside,” said Colton Roberts, a Nordstrom employee. “So my first reaction was we made an announcement, we asked all of our customers to evacuate the store.”

Those who couldn’t get out of the building hunkered down and barricaded themselves inside stores.

Jill Welhouse is a teacher who’s been trained for active shooter situations. She told the people she was with, to get ready to fight.

“I told everybody to grab something in case we had to fight because it was a possibility and luckily they had a toolbox inside so I had them grab hammers and screwdrivers and the chemicals they had for cleaning the bathroom,” said Welhouse.

As everyone filed outside to safety, gratitude and relief was the overwhelming emotion. But the reality of what had happened hit hard for many.

“It’s all shocking. It’s all really really shocking,” said Brown. “It’s shocking to be in this situation and it’s hard to know how to feel except extreme gratitude for the fact that I was able to make it out.”