I was at a Barnes & Noble bookstore this morning when I kept hearing a man talking in an elevated voice. At first I thought it was just people laughing and joking loudly, but the voices kept getting louder and wouldn't go away. I was about to walk into another section of the store when I heard one of the workers call out, "someone call 911!" and I saw two men running down the main aisle of the store. I panicked internally and walked quickly toward the restroom to hide b/c I wasn't sure if he had a gun, and in order to get out of the store I would've had to walk through the commotion.
I waited in the bathroom and the noise quieted down. I walked back out and saw a lady with 2 children and asked what was going on, she said a man was flipping out and knocking things over, etc. She didn't know if he had any weapons and she said she couldn't get to her cellphone to call 911. So I decided to call. We went back into the bathroom to make the call. Then we decided to leave because we weren't sure if he would come in and corner us, and we'd have no way out.
By the time we came out of the bathroom, some people had managed to subdue him. I quickly made my way out of the store and breathed a sigh of relief. (Surprisingly there was no mass panic in the store, people were sitting in the cafe drinking coffee and clicking away on their laptops like nothing was out of the ordinary. I don't know if they either didn't know what was going on or weren't fazed or what). I saw a woman carrying a small child heading for the store and told her not to go in there because a man was flipping out.
I got to my car and drove out of the lot but against my better judgment (curiosity got the better of me) decided to swing back around (the store is part of an outdoor shopping center) to see if the cops were there. Sure enough, they had him in cuffs and were struggling to get him into the car.
After I got home I called the store later to ask for details. The lady on the phone was very nice and she said he turned out to be a homeless man who was drunk and behaved violently when asked to leave (attacked 2 of the store managers and injured them badly). She said she hoped I'd return to the store since they'd never had anything like this happen in the 5 years she's worked there. I told her I'd be back, but I don't think I can.
I am still shaken up. I don't know if my life was in danger or not, but I keep running over the what-ifs. What if he'd had a gun and this had been a rampage, and I'd gotten shot? What if he'd seen me and attacked me? What if I had died today? How are you supposed to deal with the what-ifs? I'm glad that nothing happened and no one was killed or severely injured (the managers will be all right), but I can't stop thinking about the what ifs. How am I to deal?! It's driving me crazy, and my family is acting all nonchalant about it; they don't seem to care at all. Also, I was NOT expecting anything like this...how am I supposed to go anywhere without worrying that every single person is going to flip out and/or attack?
I know these things happen all the time and that I shouldn't be freaking out as much, but this is the FIRST time something like this has ever happened to me. This is the first time I've ever called 911 in my life. I'm trying to carry on but I can't focus on any of the things I'd planned to do today because I keep thinking about what would've happened had I died.
May 17, 2010, 01:48 PM
This is an old thread. You probably should not post your reply to it, as the original poster is unlikely to see it.
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