I almost died yesterday
Well kind of...
I was meeting my friend at this mall, which isn´t in a hoooorrible part of Costa Rica but it´s not really the safest part.
At the main entrance there´s a bar to the right, exactly when you come in. My friend and I were on our way out, we were about 2 stores away from the bar about 20 feet? When all of the sudden there´s this loud noise....the first time I thought it was just like a tire popping or something like that...but then there was a second, and a third...then people started ducking and running back into the mall...so that´s when I figured out they were gun shots coming from the bar. I was in a little state of shock so I just kinda froze and my friend grabbed me and we started looking for a place to hide. Everyone was frantically going into different stores, we saw the bathrooms and went in there where there was a janitor´s closet where we hid with 3 other people. There was this kid with us, about 15 years old, who was just freaking out completely, he was crying, hyperventalating, begging me to call 911. I don´t know how I kept calm enough to try and calm him down and tell him everything was ok when I had no idea what was happening or what was going to happen. I remember at one point everyone started shushing us and all I could think of were the shootings in universities and in movies. All we could really hear was comotion, a little bit of loud noises but no more gun shots, which was kind of relieving. People kept saying different things like, a guy was shot at the bar, these guys are trying to rob the mall....just things that freaked me out a little more. Finally the cleaning lady (who was in there with us but kept going in and out...for some weird reason) told us that they had caught the guy and that everyone was out of hiding. So very nervously we walked out of the janitor´s closet where I saw this brown liquid (no, not diarrhea) but I didn´t pay much attention to it. We walked into the main hallway where we heard a man screaming obsenities, while everyone watched, supposedly it was the shooter being detained. All of the sudden people started running back towards us and I just thought he had gotten loose so we ran into the Tommy Hilfiger store where the workers were letting people in. On the ground, outside the Tommy store there was bottle of whiskey...with the brown liquid spilled all over, making a sort of trail. The same brown liquid that was in front of the janitor´s closet where we were hiding. The Tommy employees were telling us they saw the man walking by with the bottle and I guess he threw it on the ground. Then my friend tells me the guy was in front of the janitor´s closet and even tried to open the door next to us which is why everyone shushed us at one point. We stayed in the store for about 30 minutes, everyone making phone calls and waiting for all the mess to end. They had closed the whole mall so we were trying to figure out how to get out. They finally told us everything was ok and that we could go out through the parking lot, so that´s what we did. Safe and sound...but very very very shaky.
Later on we read the article that explained that it was some kind of a bar fight and that the shooter shot a man in the heart and stomach, he died on the way to the hospital.
This morning I read another article that said the shooter was just at the bar by himself when all of the sudden he turns around and shoots this guy who was just sitting there with his friends and said something like "stop looking at me"but in Costa Rican slang, so I wasn´t really sure what it meant. The article also said that the shooter got away in a taxi. which makes my whole experience even weirder because now I ask myself...who was supposedly detained and screaming? who walked around the mall spilling good whiskey all over the place? hmmm....it´s a mystery I´ll probably never solve.
All sarcasm aside, I´m glad I´m okay and that there was only one victim (sadly there was one at all). It was the scariest thing I´ve ever been through in my life. I will never go back to that mall....mall san pedro for those of you who plan visiting Costa Rica....DON´T EVER GO THERE! It was only 5 in the afternoon! Broad day light...tons of people, little kids! It was just one of those things you never think will happen to you.
I love you all and I´m glad I´m ok to keep loving you. :)
So yeah, that was my Friday afternoon.
I was meeting my friend at this mall, which isn´t in a hoooorrible part of Costa Rica but it´s not really the safest part.
At the main entrance there´s a bar to the right, exactly when you come in. My friend and I were on our way out, we were about 2 stores away from the bar about 20 feet? When all of the sudden there´s this loud noise....the first time I thought it was just like a tire popping or something like that...but then there was a second, and a third...then people started ducking and running back into the mall...so that´s when I figured out they were gun shots coming from the bar. I was in a little state of shock so I just kinda froze and my friend grabbed me and we started looking for a place to hide. Everyone was frantically going into different stores, we saw the bathrooms and went in there where there was a janitor´s closet where we hid with 3 other people. There was this kid with us, about 15 years old, who was just freaking out completely, he was crying, hyperventalating, begging me to call 911. I don´t know how I kept calm enough to try and calm him down and tell him everything was ok when I had no idea what was happening or what was going to happen. I remember at one point everyone started shushing us and all I could think of were the shootings in universities and in movies. All we could really hear was comotion, a little bit of loud noises but no more gun shots, which was kind of relieving. People kept saying different things like, a guy was shot at the bar, these guys are trying to rob the mall....just things that freaked me out a little more. Finally the cleaning lady (who was in there with us but kept going in and out...for some weird reason) told us that they had caught the guy and that everyone was out of hiding. So very nervously we walked out of the janitor´s closet where I saw this brown liquid (no, not diarrhea) but I didn´t pay much attention to it. We walked into the main hallway where we heard a man screaming obsenities, while everyone watched, supposedly it was the shooter being detained. All of the sudden people started running back towards us and I just thought he had gotten loose so we ran into the Tommy Hilfiger store where the workers were letting people in. On the ground, outside the Tommy store there was bottle of whiskey...with the brown liquid spilled all over, making a sort of trail. The same brown liquid that was in front of the janitor´s closet where we were hiding. The Tommy employees were telling us they saw the man walking by with the bottle and I guess he threw it on the ground. Then my friend tells me the guy was in front of the janitor´s closet and even tried to open the door next to us which is why everyone shushed us at one point. We stayed in the store for about 30 minutes, everyone making phone calls and waiting for all the mess to end. They had closed the whole mall so we were trying to figure out how to get out. They finally told us everything was ok and that we could go out through the parking lot, so that´s what we did. Safe and sound...but very very very shaky.
Later on we read the article that explained that it was some kind of a bar fight and that the shooter shot a man in the heart and stomach, he died on the way to the hospital.
This morning I read another article that said the shooter was just at the bar by himself when all of the sudden he turns around and shoots this guy who was just sitting there with his friends and said something like "stop looking at me"but in Costa Rican slang, so I wasn´t really sure what it meant. The article also said that the shooter got away in a taxi. which makes my whole experience even weirder because now I ask myself...who was supposedly detained and screaming? who walked around the mall spilling good whiskey all over the place? hmmm....it´s a mystery I´ll probably never solve.
All sarcasm aside, I´m glad I´m okay and that there was only one victim (sadly there was one at all). It was the scariest thing I´ve ever been through in my life. I will never go back to that mall....mall san pedro for those of you who plan visiting Costa Rica....DON´T EVER GO THERE! It was only 5 in the afternoon! Broad day light...tons of people, little kids! It was just one of those things you never think will happen to you.
I love you all and I´m glad I´m ok to keep loving you. :)
So yeah, that was my Friday afternoon.