DALLAS, TEXAS: A Dallas mall shooting survivor has disclosed that a store worker saved the lives of a dozen shoppers, hiding inside a closet, at the cost of her own life. Racquel Lee was one of the many shoppers present at Allen Premium Outlets Saturday, May 6, when Mauricio Garcia, 33, gunned down eight victims. Lee began her buying by pulling up to the same H&M store where just moments later Garcia arrived in his car and opened fire.
Lee, who is a mother of two, said it 'sounded like a warzone' as horrified shopper tried to escape from the hail of bullets. Amid the chaos which soon followed, the unnamed store manager gathered panic-stricken Lee and 12 others which included several children and hid them inside the store's bathroom closet. The worker then left Lee and the group before they were escorted out by the authorities.
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Lee saw the lifeless body of the manager
Lee recalled that on her way out she noticed the very same worker that helped her to hide barely an hour ago among the mass of 'bullets and bodies' outside. "The store associate saved our lives," an emotional Lee told CBS News. "I was crouching down, like, 'I hope we don't get hit by a bullet,'" the near-victim added when the gunfire began.
Lee previously detailed about the time when she parked her White SUV in front of the H&M where the gunman was seen arriving and opening fire on a group of people which included children. Lee said that it did not take her much time to realize that those were the sounds of bullets being fired even though she was inside the store. "The gunshots – it sounded like a warzone," she recalled. "It was horrifying and it felt like you were in a dream."
The restroom closet had no service
She said that people were desperately dialing the emergency services but unfortunately did not have service in the restroom closet. "We were in a bathroom closet, and we were just in the closet trying not be heard, crying, praying - people were trying to call 911, we couldn't dial out." She added, "I just remembered thinking – Oh god, he's coming in here next."
The killer was a Neo-Nazi
Luckily, Garcia was never able to find out Lee and others who were hiding inside a closet and instead was killed by an Allen PD officer who happened to be on the scene and also heard the gunshots. The killer, a Dallas native, had fired more than 100 and had bag full of bullets and other ammunition when he was put down.
Another survivor recalls the incident
Steven Spainhouer, an Allen resident who witnessed the entire incident unfolding in front of his eyes, recalled being one of the first person present on the scene. Spainhouer rescued his son from a clothing store where the gunman started his absolute carnage. The man recalled that at least one of the victims was a child whom he desperately tried to save after rushing to H&M, where his son had worked.
Spainhouer received a distraught call from his son at around 3.30 pm that day where he was notified that shots were fired outside the shop, with his relative still trapped inside. As no emergency service providers arrived at the scene at the time, Spainhouer tried to save many people's lives who were struck by gunfire but three were already beyond life saving. "The first girl I walked up to was crouched down covering her head in the bushes, so I felt for a pulse, pulled her head to the side and she had no face," he said of the first victim he came across, a young girl.
The man said that he found another child who was miraculously saved by his protective mother who covered him during the incident and was also one of the eight victims to lose their lives in the inhuman attack. "When I rolled the mother over, he came out," Spainhouer said, speaking to CBS reporter JD Miles just a few hundred yards from where the carnage was seen only a few hours before. "I asked him if he was OK and he said, 'My mom is hurt, my mom is hurt.'"
Spainhouer said that he wanted to change the boy's state of mind and took him away from the grisly scene. "Rather than traumatize him any more, I pulled him around the corner sat him down and he was covered from head to toe. Like somebody poured blood on him", he added.
