Gunfight in the parking lot

[barondave]

Well, gunshots, anyway.

As I was leaving a store in the Hi-Lake mall (the newly rebuilt mall just east of Hiawatha on Lake, near the Target store mall), gunfire sounded behind me.

My instincts weren't sharp enough to throw myself to the ground, but I turned to look and backed into the shielding corner of the building. I tried to snap into Sherlock Holmes Observation mode, though there's no way to check: Five shots fired (maybe only 4?), medium tall black guy (5'10-6'), stubby facial hair (?), wearing a light gray sweatshirt with something on it, hood down. He was shooting a pistol; I didn't see him firing but I did see him pointing the weapon. When done, he paused and fled towards Lake Street.

By then it was all over. The whole thing was maybe 10 seconds max, possibly closer to 5. It was loud, and my right ear still feels it.

The guy he was shooting at was on the ground, cell phone a few feet away. "Are you okay?" I asked, and the several other people in the area also looked on. He got up, unharmed but shaken. "You dropped your cell phone," said another onlooker. He picked it up, looked around trepidatiously, and walked away, in the other direction from the shooter. There was no blood on the ground and he looked nervous but physically okay. The owner of the closest store popped his head out, and I assume the cops were called.

If it was a real shooting (which I had to assume in the heat of the moment), the guy was a lousy shot. His victim was 20-30 feet away. Directly behind him in the line of fire was my car. I looked it over for bullet holes and found nothing. I wasn't shaken or anything, but it was disturbing.

I drove home, parked in the garage downstairs. One of my neighbors was also getting out of his car, with his grandson. The kid, around 8, was in a good mood and we talked a bit. Unbidden,he gave me a hug. I needed that.

Comments

[davidwilford.livejournal.com]

Great report, but if it ever happens again please get down!

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you're OK and the target-guy was OK! Yay for little-kid hugs.

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

Sounds scary! I'm glad neither you nor your car were hurt and that the apparent target was able to walk away.

[parsleigh.livejournal.com]

Glad you're okay. That would be really scary.

[wormquartet.livejournal.com]

Gyagh! Scary as hell! GLad you're okay, dammit!

-=ShoEboX=-

[remus-shepherd.livejournal.com]

Yikes. Glad you're all right.

[asimovberlioz.livejournal.com]

Glad you're all right. It's always jarring to read about violence in the more "bourgeois" parts of Minneapolis. For example, that pipe-bomb that went off under a bus stop bench in Uptown around 1982. So out of place, if you get what I mean.

[invader-tak-1.livejournal.com]

Agreed! Get out of the line of fire!

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Good grief! I go there all the time!

So glad you are okay.

[pixelene.livejournal.com]

Oh..... damn! Glad you are okay!

[sleigh.livejournal.com]

Wow.... Glad you (and the intended victim) were unharmed. What a scary situation.

[profgeek.livejournal.com]

Good grief, DavE! I'm glad you and all concerned are unharmed, but get your ass down in a situation like that. It sounds you could give a description of the shooter to the police - if, indeed, they had been called. Scary scen.

[lakeboy-55.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you're safe. I know you have reporter builtin, but, please be careful. I applaud your sangfroid in the situation. I think that, in my current condition, I would have freaked out. I really can't say what I would have done. I hope you would have flung myself flat on the ground.

[calimac.livejournal.com]

My first thought was: What? (I came here from your later post.) Then I thought: Yikes! Now I think what the other comments say: Glad you got through that OK.

Keen eye for the obvious:

[joelrosenberg.livejournal.com]

Glad you weren't hurt.

[radparker.livejournal.com]

Yikes!! I'm glad you're OK.