“My immediate reaction was like, ‘No way I’m about to die in a Cheesecake Factory,’ and I was wondering how I could even text my parents that I am in a mall with an active shooter,” Castilleja School junior Brooke Oliveira said.
A shooting broke out at Westfield Valley Fair mall in Santa Clara at around 5:40 p.m. on Black Friday, leaving three injured. The San Jose Police Department reported that the violence started after a verbal dispute between one of the victims and the shooter, who pulled a firearm from his waistband and shot at the man he had been arguing with.
The shooter then fired multiple rounds, resulting in a passerby woman and a 16-year-old girl being hit by stray bullets. None of the victims sustained life-threatening injuries, but all were transferred to local hospitals. A 17-year-old was arrested and charged with attempted murder, among other charges. Authorities believe the event was gang-related.
Following a temporary warning to stay clear of the area immediately after the shooting occurred, the mall reopened on Saturday. The mall was especially crowded due to Black Friday, and many students were present that day.
Oliveira was at the Cheesecake Factory with two friends when a waiter informed her group that there was an active shooter inside the mall, and advised them that it would be safest to stay inside the restaurant rather than try to escape. “A lot of people in the restaurant straight up left, but also a lot of people were just acting like nothing happened. […] I was fully freaking out thinking this was a mass shooting,” she said.
“If this situation can happen at Valley Fair, one of the largest and most heavily guarded malls in the Bay Area, then I think it speaks a lot about our gun control laws. Even if they are restrictive, it still isn’t enough to combat gun violence,” Oliveira said.
Menlo School sophomore Yazi Foughi had just gotten off the phone after making plans to meet her mom at Macy’s when she saw a group of girls running. She didn’t think anything of it at first until she began to see more sprinting crowds. “I was like ‘Oh shoot, we gotta go, something is wrong,’” Foughi said.
“We ran to Santana Row and could see floods of people getting out of Valley Fair. Cars were trying to escape, and it was just absolute chaos,” she said.
Foughi already assumed the incident had something to do with a shooter, but it wasn’t until she was out of the mall that it was confirmed. “It was more confusing than scary, because I was already out of the mall when I heard there was a shooter,” she said.
M-A senior Akemi Kwan was Black Friday shopping earlier that day and left before the shooting occurred because of how crowded the stores were. Later on, she was shocked to see an article about the shooting sent in her extended family group chat. “I was like, ‘Oh my God.’ I literally gasped,” Kwan said. “I thought that people didn’t really carry guns in California like that.”
M-A Junior Mo Rhai Balinton had been at Valley Fair with friends earlier in the day, but left due to the high volume of shoppers. Afterward, her friends sent her photos and articles about the shooting.
“I was honestly relieved and happy that I had left the mall, but I was also sad for people that had to experience it,” Rhai Balinton said.
“It makes me worried because [the shooter] was able to just walk into the mall very freely with the gun. It shows that people have too much freedom when it comes to guns,” she said.
“This country has a big gun issue, and [this incident] just further validates my feeling about it. People were just trying to enjoy Black Friday, and then you have some guy shooting people. It’s just horrible,” Foughi said.
“I don’t know if I’ll be able to go to the mall anytime soon, to be honest, because I just feel really unsafe, and it just makes me really uncomfortable,” Palo Alto High School sophomore Maya Rajgopal said.
Despite this, some are still comfortable visiting the mall again. “This will probably not affect if I go to the mall in the future. I’m happy to know that it was an isolated shooting and not a shooting on a crowd,” Rhai Balinton said.
“Nobody should have to be thinking now that when they go to the mall, something like this will happen again. It genuinely shouldn’t be a possibility.” Foughi said.
