LAFAYETTE–Chaos erupted in the Acadiana Mall Monday after a shooting inside the shopping center. Witnesses to that shooting say they were stunned and confused when the shots were fired.
“This loud shot rang out, and I dropped and ran to the back of the store,” one employee at a store in the mall told us.
“We didn’t necessarily know what happened until we heard people running and screaming through the food court,” Aleathea Mason, a shopper, said.
“Everybody was coming out so quick and then we got stuck in one office,” said Yasser Baleisi, another shopper.
Some people in the mall were held under lockdown for up to an hour. No one KATC spoke to could describe the actual event, but all of them spoke of one thing in particular–the fear that gripped them in the moments after the shooting.
“You think it doesn’t happen to me, but it does, so you should be prepared and tell everyone you love them,” a store employee said.
