Witnesses recount Mayfair mall shooting: ‘Everyone just started running and screaming.’ ‘We were all scared out of our minds.’
When a gunman opened fire inside Mayfair mall in Wauwatosa on Friday afternoon, injuring seven adults and one teenager, shoppers and workers heard the shots ring out.
Many people ran from the building, some screaming; others found places to hide.
As news broke of the shooting, concerned families and friends gathered in the mall parking lot to wait for their loved ones.
Here are stories from some of the witnesses:
More:Shooting at Mayfair mall leaves 8 injured; police looking for shooter
Woman, 79-year-old mother dropped to floor inside Macy’s
Jill Whitfield-Wooley was inside Macy’s with her 79-year-old mother when she said she heard eight to 12 shots coming from inside the mall.
The two dropped to the ground for a moment, then ran in the opposite direction.
“Unfortunately, all of us have thought about what we would do in that situation. Unfortunately, that kicked in and we made it to a safe place,” she said.
When they got out of the mall, Whitfield-Wooley said her mom was shaken up and police gave her a blanket.
“All of this has not sunk in quite yet,” she said. “I think there’s a certain amount of shock that’s going on.”
Woman who served in military for 15 years counts shooting as scariest experience of her life
Gloria Hall said she was on the second floor of Mayfair mall with her niece when she heard a “pow, pow, pow, pow, pow.”
“I’m like, that sounds like gunfire,” Hall said.
“We look up, we see people running, little kids crying, people pushing their strollers,” she said. “We were all scared out of our minds.”
She stayed in the back of the PINK store for hours while police looked for the gunman. The manager locked the doors and turned the lights off.
“We all just sat on the floor praying,” she said.
“It was the scariest experience of my whole life,” she said. “I spent 15 years in the military, but that was scary.”
PacSun employee reunites with mother after four hours locked inside store
Bayden Stoltenberg-Willis was working at PacSun when he saw people running through the mall.
He didn’t hear or see anything at first, but then someone told him a shooting happened.
“There was a customer walking in the middle of the mall and I yelled, ‘Come here,’” Stoltenberg-Willis said. “He came in. We locked the doors, shut off all the lights and just waited.”
Stoltenberg-Willis and four other people waited for nearly four hours until they heard police arrive at the store.
“They took care of us, which was appreciated,” Stoltenberg-Willis said.
His mother, Rebekah Stoltenberg, was nearby at a doctor’s office when she noticed the police activity and dialed him quickly. He spent the hours talking to his parents and friends, letting them know he was OK.
Stoltenberg-Willis and others were taken by Milwaukee County Transit System bus to At Home, the home décor store a mile away from the mall that was serving as the official reunification point.
When he got off the bus, his mom was waiting. She ran to him, jumping into his arms.
“I’m OK,” Stoltenberg-Willis said in her ear.
The mother and son feel lucky.
“I have him, I can breathe a little easy, but there’s people who aren’t in our situation,” Stoltenberg said. “Our prayers are with them.”
19-year-old in food court heard gunshots, ran out quickly
Morgan Ivy, a 19-year-old from Oak Creek, was eating at the food court, alongside many families with children, when she heard eight shots.
They sounded like “firecrackers,” she said. “Everyone just started running and screaming.”
Ivy saw people running down the escalators. She ran, too.
Once she made it outside, it was calm for a moment. Then the police cars started arriving. She got back to her car safely and called her mom to let her know she was OK.
She feels “lucky” that she got out of the mall as soon as she did. She often goes to the mall after finishing work at a nearby dentist’s office and had just sat down with her food.
All seemed normal until the shots rang out, she said.
Woman shelters in back room for hours
Cecilia Guerrero, 20, of West Milwaukee, took cover in a back room inside the OFFLINE by Aerie store with her sister, Anahi, a family of three and four store associates.
Guerrero said she had been in the locked room since around 2:50 p.m. and was still inside hours later.
“It was very terrifying,” Guerrero said. “I was very nervous at the beginning when we didn’t know what was going on. But now that I’m safe and no one can get in, I’m OK. But it was very freaky and there was some panic.”
In the chaos, she was separated from her partner, who was initially pulled by someone else into Nordstrom but eventually made it outside.
Guerrero said even though these shootings are “more common” she didn’t think it would happen there.
Dad reassured daughter hiding in hallway
Steven Humphrie jumped into protective mode when his 21-year-old daughter Nadia called him from work and said there was a shooting at the mall.
“I told her to get low and hide until I got there,” Humphrie said. “I could hear the shots. I just took off.”
When Humphrie got to the mall, his daughter called him on FaceTime. She was hiding in a hallway with others.
“There was quite a few people in the hallway,” Humphrie said.
Shopper entering mall alerted to shooter by woman running out doors
Samantha Paul, 24, had just walked through the second set of doors of Mayfair when a stranger grabbed her arm and said, “Leave. There is a shooter.”
“I was shaking and crying, and I am still crying,” Paul said. “I am so thankful she grabbed me.”
As soon as she started to run, she said it seemed like hundreds of people were running toward their cars, where many tried to escape. Some shouted at police officers to ask what was happening.
“I was terrified,” she said.
“I never thought I would be in this situation,” she said. “I love Mayfair. Even with the protests, I still felt comfortable going there. (Now), I don’t want to go there by myself again. It was frightening that this happened at 3 p.m.”
Man working at kiosk shot in leg
Waseem Dilshad said his uncle was working at a kiosk near Macy’s when he was shot in the leg twice.
Dilshad’s cousin was also working at the kiosk and saw the shooting happen. He was on the phone with Dilshad at the time.
“He started cursing and yelling and said, ‘I’m going to call you back, there’s blood everywhere,” Dilshad said.
His uncle was taken to Froedtert Hospital and was not in critical condition. His cousin remained inside the mall, Dilshad said shortly before 5 p.m.
Board game store owner helped injured person
Gordon Lugauer was in the back office of his Board Game Barrister store when he heard gunfire.
It was “sudden and abrupt,” he said.
He returned to the front of the store where his staff and about a half dozen customers had dropped to the floor.
No one inside was injured, but he saw multiple people wounded outside his store, on the first floor of the mall near Macy’s. And bullets damaged his storefront.
A person who had been waiting to enter the store because of social distancing rules was shot in the leg. Lugauer and his employees helped the injured person into the store to wait for paramedics.
Evan Casey, Sarah Hauer, Ricardo Torres, Christopher Kuhagen and Cathy Kozlowicz of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.
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