‘IT WAS HORRIFYING’

Allen Shooting Survivor Says a Store Associate Saved Over a Dozen Lives

The group hid in a bathroom closet during the rampage.

A mother who survived the horrific mass shooting at a shopping mall in Texas over the weekend says she and a group of 12 others lived thanks to the courageous actions of a store associate. A gunman—identified by authorities as 33-year-old Mauricio Garcia—killed eight people and wounded seven others during the attack at Allen Premium Outlets on Saturday afternoon. Racquel Lee told CBS News Texas she walked over “bullets and bodies” after the attack, during which she and others hid in a bathroom closet. “It sounded like a warzone,” the mom of two said in an emotional interview Sunday. “It was horrifying, and it felt like you were in a dream.” Lee said her group tried to stop themselves from being heard crying or praying, fearing they would be targeted by the shooter. “I just remember thinking ‘Oh God, he’s coming in here next,’” Lee said. She added that she crouched down in the closet in the hope of avoiding being hit by a stray round. “And then the store associate saved our lives,” Lee said. Although Lee did not provide details of the associate’s actions in the interview, host Nicole Baker said Lee said that the associate was “one of the bodies she walked by on her way out of that store.” “She said that she sacrificed her life to save all of theirs,” Baker added.