VANCOUVER, Wash. — A teenage employee working at Twisted Escape Rooms in the Vancouver Mall unlocked the doors to the business and ushered a group of parents and crying children, dressed in Halloween costumes, inside after shots were fired inside the food court of the mall Thursday night.
One man died, and two bystanders were injured. The search for the shooter, who wore a Halloween mask during the shooting, is ongoing. Vancouver police said they believe the fatal shooting was a targeted attack and there's no active threat.
What happened in the escape room was captured on surveillance video from inside the business. In the video, the teen employee, Bronwynn Cruden, is sitting at a desk when three or four gunshots are heard. The girl gets up from the desk, hurries to the door and locks it, then runs to the back. Seconds later, parents and children, screaming and crying, come to the door and try to open it. The girl runs to the door, unlocks it and ushers everyone inside, locking the door behind them and leading everyone to the back of the store.
"I hesitated, for like three seconds, and I looked up and I just see hundreds of people running with their kids and screaming," said Bronwynn in a phone call Friday afternoon.
She said the people she let in had a baby, and other young children were in the group, too.
"One of their sons was asking what was going on, and what was happening," she said.
"She is an absolute hero to me," Wendy Cruden, the girl's mother, told KGW. "I'm so thankful that she was there to help those families get to safety. ... We always talked about what would happen if there was ever an emergency like that. And she absolutely did the right thing. We are so thankful that she is safe, and we are terribly sorry for the loss and injuries to the innocent victims."
Bronwynn described the shooting as "just sick," and said she was sad for the children who experienced the shooting.
"That was probably their first Halloween; they will be traumatized for the rest of their lives," she said.
Wendy Cruden said she wanted to thank mall security and management, the Vancouver Police Department and other first responders.
As of Saturday, Vancouver Police Department detectives are looking to speak with two women, one with a small child, who were there at the time of the shooting; the police department said they are not involved in the shooting. Anyone with information can anonymously contact the Crime Stoppers of Oregon.