Westroads Mall Shooting: A Witness Reflection
Artist Credit: Josiah Hazel
By Elle Love
“In the last few days, I was already incredibly vocal about gun violence in 2021,” Maggie Miller said reflecting on the days just before the recent deadly Westroads Mall shooting in Omaha. “It’s very important to me that people like my friends and my family know that someone they love has experienced this trauma, ” said Miller.
Maggie Miller, Au.D., is a research audiologist at Boys Town National Research Hospital. Working a busy research schedule, she doesn't get many days off to spend with the family. So, often errands and family blend together; this particular Saturday, it was returning some clothes in the mall and then a family lunch in the food court after. “We were going to grab lunch on the way out,” said Maggie of their family outing - one of the first in over a year due to the pandemic. Maggie said she planned to return the items inside the mall while her husband waited with their 6-year-old, but they decided to stay together. Of course, they had no idea what was about to happen, but Maggie said she is thankful they stayed together and hadn’t gone far into the mall that day.
The Millers walked past the food court to American Eagle, “that was when we heard the first shots,” Miller said. “It was one of those moments where I asked myself ‘is that what I think it is?’ And I made eye contact with my husband then he told me he wasn’t sure then we started to walk fast.” Only about 5 seconds had passed when Maggie recalled seeing people running toward the exits.
“My husband picked up our daughter and we ran as fast as we could,” Miller said. “I remembered I had asthma, but I thought the adrenaline in my body would kick in and my body would do what it needed to do while I ran as fast as I could.” They ran with the rest of the crowd toward the nearest exit. Many other families and individuals who were not close enough to the exits found safety in bathrooms or storage closets in the mall’s retail stores.
Miller remembered hearing her husband and daughter yelling for her, encouraging her to keep running as she was further behind than the two of them. By the time the last shot was fired, she was disoriented and out of breath. “It felt like it flew right by me,” Miller said. “Turning that corner to leave Flagship Commons, (the food court) I remembered thinking to myself, ‘I’m going to die, this is how it is gonna happen and I remembered thinking about what I was wearing and thought this is the last thing I’m ever going to wear. These were the clothes I was going to die in”
Miller pushed herself to keep running as she made her exit out of the mall and into the parking lot. She continued to hear her husband and daughter’s calls encouraging her to make it to the car safely as she felt like her body was failing her. “My lungs have never hurt as badly as they did, I was so thankful that I was out but I couldn’t even feel my arms and my husband just pulled me into the car and we pulled out as fast as we could,” Miller said. “Then I just started seeing emergency vehicles going the other way towards the mall and we were like ‘yup, that was totally gunfire’ and it was the scariest day of my life.”
Miller said that because she is fully vaccinated as a medical professional, she should feel safe in public, but the recent mass shootings in the country, including the one at Westroads, have taken that feeling of safety away. “I thought to myself ‘it was finally safe for me to go to the mall’ and basically we went from facing the COVID-19 pandemic to a gun epidemic in this country in the same day like that,” Miller said. “I felt safe for the first time in over a year and then that happened. I can’t get over that.”
Currently, Miller and her family are safe, recovering emotionally and mentally from what they have experienced that day. “We were going through a cycle of emotions. My daughter was very quiet, and she was telling me not to cry. She was handling it well for a 6-year-old...she was only six.” Miller said. “That sadness quickly switched to anger because we have been dealing with it in this country for very long and I wished I was more involved in gun safety legislation.”
Just over a month ago, an Omaha Police Officer was shot in Westroads Mall while attempting to arrest a suspected shoplifter, and many Omaha residents still remember the date ‘December 5th’ as the day eight people were killed in a mass shooting also at Westroads shopping mall in 2007. According to data from the Gun Violence Archive, the US has seen at least 164 mass shootings in 2021. Miller said the recent shooting along with the previous incidents angers her and her husband enough to demand a call for action to prevent other families from experiencing the trauma.
“I wish that nobody has [to] experience what I have experienced ever again. I’m also sad for the shooters, the suspects.” Miller said. “If you’ve seen the photos of the suspects, those are kids. They’re children and they’re not safe with the weapons that they have. I don’t know how they got tied up in that or how they got that gun. I just want to do better for our kids.”