An active shooter attack was reported at the Southlake Mall in Hobart, Indiana on Dec. 30, 2021. Claire’s employee @michymyers detailed their experience hiding during the attack on TikTok.
NWITimes reported that police did not identify the shooter, and that “no gunshot victims were found upon further investigation.”
“A little girl wanted an ear piercing and now we are in the back room of my Claire’s store after shots were fired in our mall,” @michymyers wrote in the overlay text of their TikTok posted on the day of the shooting. “This is evil.”
@michymyers posted another TikTok from the scene, stating that they were hiding with a “family of five.”
“The family ran to the back, and I shut and locked the gate and turned off the lights and now I’m waiting for the police or something,” they said, recounting the events that transpired immediately after hearing gunshots in the mall.
Later in the day on Dec. 30, @michymyers confirmed that they are OK and that the family in question was safe as well.
In another TikTok, the TikToker explained that they were piercing the ears of a 4-year-old girl at the beginning of their workday when they heard three gunshots. They then saw mall security guards running.
“I turn off the lights and the music,” they said. “The shots were like right directly above me, like upstairs. And it’s a mall, so that shit echoed. Like I literally heard that ring in my ear.”
@michymyers said that the family was “hostile” toward them and asked them if they were trained to handle an active shooter. They said that they were only trained to handle an active shooter at school, not as an employee at Claire’s.
The TikToker also shared a video of their gloves on the floor of the store and the ear-piercing station already set up. They also said that mall security checked everyone’s bags after the incident. Consistent with NWITimes’s reporting, @michymyers also shared a photo of glass panes in the mall that had been shot.
They also said they returned to work on Dec. 31, when the mall reopened.
Commenters on the video referenced past shootings in the Southlake Mall, which is the state’s second largest. In June 2021, a man “flashed” a gun at the mall, according to NWITimes.
“I was in it last time it got shot,” @beautifulgore commented.
“Southlake Mall used to be the place to go,” @julsruless wrote. “Now there’s been a shooting there every year.”
“Mall workers need hazard pay,” @angel_thrax commented.
Others expressed sympathy for @michymyers and disbelief that shootings are as common as they are in the U.S. According to Everytown for Gun Safety, the gun homicide rate in the U.S. is 25 times higher than “that of other high-income countries.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to @michymyers via Instagram direct message and to Claire’s via email. The Daily Dot was unable to reach the Southlake Mall.
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