Witness says ladder falling, not gunshot, triggered initial panic at Crabtree Valley Mall
Officials now have a clearer picture of what happened inside Crabtree Valley Mall over the weekend – when a loud banging noise triggered panic, which led to an actual firearm going off and hitting a 22-year-old man amid the chaos.
The series of events started when a ladder crashed to the ground.
Startled people began scattering for safety – including a man with a concealed gun that accidentally fired while he was trying to run away.
WRAL News has been digging for answers all day and spoke with a man who saw the chaos begin inside the food court while he was ordering food.
Blake Roller watched as confusion turned to panic – then chaos.
"I was ordering my food at the kabob shop, when I heard a bang at the Lids store," he says. 'I looked over ... and there was a ladder laying there, so I went back to ordering my food."
However, many people in the food court didn't realize the resounding bang was only a ladder falling.
"The next thing I know, I hear a scream and people running from Lids. I look over and people are running, jumping. It was a chaotic flood of people," he says. "The food court completely cleared out. There is food spilled. Cell phones everywhere. Purses, shopping bags, laying everywhere."
He says people were hiding, terrified, crying in shock.
Roller says the incident gave him flashbacks to a school shooting at his high school a decade ago.
"You could see the fear in people's eyes," he says. "They thought their lives could end that night."
Roller says he never heard a gunshot, but Raleigh police say a 22-year-old man carrying a concealed weapon accidentally shot himself while moving to safety.
That man, Allan Hernandez, was cited Monday with discharging a firearm in the city limits and carrying a concealed weapon.
"If they did have a permit, they could be entitled to forfeiting that permit," explains Lorrin Freeman, Wake County District Attorney. "Potentially paying a $500 fine, having an infraction charge."
WRAL News surveyed the mall today, where many - but not all - entrances were marked with the no weapons policy. WRAL News tried repeatedly to call mall management to ask how they enforce this rule on their property – and even visited their office – but still have gotten no word from mall management two days after the chaotic incident.
Police would not comment on if Hernandez had a concealed carry permit. However, he is expected to recover from his injuries.
