MICHIGAN — Fear and chaos at two Metro-Detroit malls Saturday.
Around noon Novi Police Department responded to 12 Oaks Mall for a bomb threat, then just six hours later Auburn Hills Police and other departments responded to calls of an active shooter at Great Lakes Crossing.
Thankfully no one was hurt in either of the scary situations but there's a lot to dig into as far as what happened at each mall.
Enddiea Reese works at Finish Line inside Great Lakes Crossing and told us she saw the fight that started Saturday's chaos.
"I was getting a shoe for a customer and I come back out, I look over by subway and all you hear is girls screaming," explained Reese. "We look over and it’s two girls fighting and then it starts to be a big crowd and everybody's like piled up and then you see two boys and stuff then you see an officer run through trying to break it apart, but ends up being beat up in the process too."
Deputy Chief of Auburn Hills Police Department, Scott McGraw said that at 6:22 p.m. Saturday two officers inside the mall saw two people fighting and tased one of them.
He said in the process someone in the crowd yelled "shots fired."
Reese said when she started to hear people yelling "he has a gun,"It was like a wreck, everything stopped, my heart stopped."
Reese said Finish Line closed their gate, turned off their lights, and told everyone to get to the back of the store.
Inside the mall people began to run for doors, McGraw said their department became inundated with calls but never heard or saw any shots themselves.
At this time they don't believe there was any.
However on social media many posts saying there was shots fired and people shot began to rack up shares.
"It’s hard to get our message out when everybody is flooding it (social media) with misinformation," said McGraw.
When asked if there are repercussions for purposely spreading false claims like this he said, "There are, it all depends on intent though. If their intent was to create chaos, then it is a crime."
The calls of shots fired came only 6 hours after Novi Police Department responded to a bomb threat at 12 Oaks Mall just 40 minutes away.
There police say they only closed Nordstrom where the threat came from and not the rest of the mall.
A woman who was working inside 12 Oaks all afternoon said, "Where we were working a lot of us were upset because we had been there for hours and nobody told us to evacuate. Like when we were leaving we were all shaking and really, really upset."
According to police the person who made the threat over the phone requested $2,000 worth of gift-cards.
Police say they never found anything suspicious in the store and it re-opened about five hours later.
A scary night for most mall shoppers in South-East Michigan, in situations some like Reese have now been trained for.
"I’m scared, I’m shook," said Reese. She said she needed like she needed her parents, "To call me down because I’m shaking."
When asked if threats like this have become more common for his department Deputy Chief McGraw said, "It has been."
Referring to the general public he said, "We all are kind of trained now, if you hear shots fired or shooting or whatever, you run."
McGraw's department put out a press release saying during the initial fight at Great Lakes Crossing:
"Two individuals were secured in handcuffs. Those individuals fled the mall and have not been located. At this time, we are asking the public for their assistance, if anyone witnessed this incident or has information related to the handcuffed individuals, they are asked to call the Auburn Hills Police Department.
