‘Shots fired’: 911 calls reveal fear, chaos at Black Friday shooting at Southpoint mall
Whispers broke through the phone line in tenuous spurts, interrupted by muted shuffles and the sounds of distant sirens. The woman was fighting back tears.
Her voice quivered as she pleaded with a 911 dispatcher to assist her and the 12 others huddled behind a dumpster at the Streets of Southpoint mall. They had just heard gun shots.
“Do you feel like you are safe to leave or not?” the dispatcher asked. “Are you able to get to a safe area?”
The woman’s breathy response was subdued: “I don’t think we are.”
“OK, just be calm,” the dispatcher said, offering a soothing tone. “I have to disconnect now. I have other calls coming in from the same location. You have to do what’s safe for you guys to do.”
The woman’s call was one of 66 that poured into emergency dispatchers on Nov. 26 — Black Friday — after an attempted robbery at Southpoint resulted in gunfire. Three people were shot, including a 10-year-old who was hit by a ricocheted bullet. At least three others were injured in the ensuing melee as hundreds of shoppers fled the mall.
No charges have been filed as of Dec. 14, and police have released few details about the investigation.
But the calls, obtained by The News & Observer from the Durham Police Department, depict a harrowing scene. They are filled with frantic pleas and hushed tones of petrified shoppers — the unnerving wake of a public shooting on one of the mall’s busiest days of the year.
Details of the shooting
The first 911 call came at 3:24 p.m., triggering an army of first responders.
A man reported “multiple gun shots.” In the immediate chaos, he ran to a store and clustered with 15 to 20 others in its back storage room. He didn’t notice which store he’d entered.
“It’s some athletic store,” he told a dispatcher. “I don’t even know what store it is.”
The call’s first several minutes were garbled. A poor connection and background commotion rendered the caller unintelligible. When his voice finally came through, the operations center was overwhelmed with other calls from the mall.
“We’ve got police on the way,” came the dispatcher’s response.
The shooting had been on Southpoint’s second level, at a kiosk near Belk. Shortly after 3 p.m., two men approached a jewelry salesman, Durham police reported a week after the incident. Investigators learned that at least one of the two men had a gun and tried to rob the merchant. One of the men and the man selling jewelry both fired guns, police said.
The suspected robber, a 26-year-old, was shot and critically injured. He remained in the hospital, as of Dec. 3. On Tuesday, Durham Police declined to provide additional information on his condition or potential charges.
The two injured bystanders — a 10-year-old girl and a 58-year-old man — were also shot, but were treated for their injuries and released from the hospital on the day of the shooting.
Of those injured leaving the mall, police said that didn’t include a pregnant woman who, in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, was also believed to be hurt. Investigators later learned that the woman was concerned for her baby but that she and her baby were both fine, police said.
Minutes after the shooting, a woman called 911 from the dressing room of Palmetto Moon, a clothing shop near Belk on the first floor.
“There were just gunshots,” she said. “We don’t know what’s going on… We just heard really, really loud gunshots. I think maybe three or four.”
The telephone line died temporarily, and the woman’s voice became indecipherable.
“We have an emergency at Southpoint mall,” said another woman, calling from The Artisan Collective’s bathroom, also on the first floor near Belk. She told the dispatcher she was hiding with 13 adults and one baby. “We heard shots fired.”
“Just let everyone around you know that everything’s going to be OK,” the dispatcher said. “Don’t panic. The officers are on scene.”
Dozens more called for help over the next several hours as Durham’s understaffed police force struggled to locate everyone on site.
Almost 80 people were hiding in an unidentified store, according to one 911 call. Another 30 sheltered with an off-duty officer at West Elm. Smaller pockets of people were scattered among the mall’s 175 stores.
Dispatchers told anxious callers — and callers dialing on behalf of people in the mall — to remain calm and to stay where they were.
“Stay calm, quiet as possible, keep close to the walls, and stay low, do you understand?” one dispatcher said.
Chaos moves to the parking lot
By 4 p.m., most had exited the mall’s buildings, but were trapped in its parking lot awaiting further instruction. The immediate threat of danger had passed, and adrenaline was dissolving into shock and hysteria.
“When are they going to let people out of this parking lot?” a woman asked a dispatcher. “...The shooting happened right in front of my face and I’m really losing it right now because I want to leave.“
Her voice cracked and failed for a moment.
“I’m being patient,” the caller said. “I’m in my car, I’m being patient ever since this happened.”
A man called police to volunteer as a witness, but realized how few details he had retained amid the commotion.
“I was standing right next to the guy who got shot,” he said before taking a long, deep breath. “I saw the four guys that were standing there. I did see the shooter — I honestly wouldn’t be able to give you a description too good of him.”
Police later released two photos of one of the men who approached the man selling the jewelry. As of Tuesday, nearly three weeks after the shooting, investigators are still trying to identify him, police said.
Throngs of shoppers waited hours to exit the mall complex as police ensured the building was empty. In their haste, some mall-goers abandoned their shopping bags and other personal items. A man called to say his wife had dropped everything she bought, her purse and her iPhone.
But some told police they were mostly grateful to have left with their lives.
“I was inside the store when I seen the shooter,” a woman said. “I had my 18-month-old and my 7-year-old in my arms when it happened and it happened right in front of us. … I would not leave the mall until I saw Durham police, so I really greatly appreciate all of you guys. Thank you so much.”
This story was originally published December 15, 2021 at 11:19 AM.
