Did Westgate Mall Handle The Recent Stabbing Properly, Or Put Employees And Customers At Risk?
Friday in Amarillo, a 16 year old juvenile stabbed 2 people at Westgate Mall. He was captured, but was anything done to protect the employees or customers that were there? In a case where someone is running through the mall stabbing people, wouldn't you think they would lock-down the mall? Did they? After speaking with an anonymous employee, the answer is no.
In fact, the employee says all the management really emphasized on was the fact that the mall was still open for shoppers.
"On Friday September 19th at 1:39pm, APD officers were dispatched to the 7700 block of Canode on a possible vandalism and trespass in progress. The caller stated that he had caught a male and female inside a vacant residence and was attempting to detain them. The two juveniles took off running and the caller pursued them towards Westgate Mall. The suspects entered the mall near the JC Penny’s entrance and ran towards the food court area with the caller in pursuit. Westgate Mall Security Officers observed the commotion and proceeded to intervene."
It started with vandalism in the parking lot, but escalated as the juveniles entered the mall...
"A female employee of a business in the food court stepped out from behind the counter to see what was going on and was stabbed by the male suspect. The male and female continued on running and entered the Bealls Department store where they were confronted by Security Officers for the mall. The male suspect stabbed one Security Officer and was resisting their attempts to be taken into custody. A citizen who had observed the assault grabbed a nearby chair and struck the male, knocking him to the ground. The male juvenile was then secured and taken into custody."
The situation was handled, but was it handled properly? What was being done by management to inform the stores of the possibility of threat? The anonymous employee says nothing. In fact, some store employees had no clue this was going on, where was the communication?
What if the situation had been worse, say a lunatic with a gun? There's several kids in the mall, the average age for the crowd at the mall is teenagers. Kids are dropped off and left there by parents. How would those children have been attended to?
Why wouldn't they have locked the mall down, and how did employees not even know about the incident until after the fact? The anonymous employee wants to know why the mall management didn't handle the situation properly, and if they are putting together a contingency plan for future incidents similar to this one.
Do you think the mall could have handled it better, is it even necessary to lock-down the mall for juveniles running through with a knife?
Most people carry a knife, so you can assume there's a teenager in the mall with a knife at all times. However, what about that incident, that 1 in a million chance where something like this happens? The anonymous employee doesn't feel safe, do you blame them?
"The female employee and the Security Officer were transported to a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries. The Security Officer did require immediate surgery.
The 16 year old juvenile was transported to a local hospital for treatment for his minor injuries while being taken into custody. Once he is released from the hospital he will be booked into the Youth Center of the High Plains on numerous charges. The male is reported to be a runaway out of another jurisdiction and has a directive to apprehend with an original charge of Burglary out of different jurisdiction. The female juvenile was taken to the police department for questioning.
This incident remains under investigation."
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