‘Shots play through my head.’ Victim tells of the aftermath of Columbiana mall shooting
She has a deep bruise on her arm from a friend pulling her off the floor and to safety, a victim of a stampede that followed Saturday’s shooting at Columbiana Centre mall testified Tuesday.
The bruise is a reminder of the what she described as a traumatizing experience. “When I try to go to sleep, the sound of gunshots play through my head,” she told the court during bond hearings for two men charged in the shooting.
At Columbia’s municipal court on Washington Street, victims of the Saturday shooting and the ensuing chaos had their first opportunity to speak in a public forum about their experiences and the cost, some of which was described as “life altering.”
The Columbia Police Department said nine people were shot and six others hurt in the panic at the popular shopping center in the Harbison area.
The victim, who was unidentified, began stoically speaking about the shootings. But a few sentences in she broke into tears and sobs.
She was injured after the gunmen opened fire and hundreds of people fled the bullets. A man with a stroller ran into the woman who testified Tuesday, she said.
The victim said she didn’t blame the man with the stroller, but she blames the people who caused him to flee in fear of his and his child’s fear.
The victim suffered deep facial and head wounds as well as other deep bruises, she told the court. A friend pulled her from the ground after she was knocked over, and they hid in the storage room of a store.
Her head had a large bandage when she spoke Tuesday. She can’t smile or laugh or adjust her head without feeling pain, she said.
She said she would never feel safe in crowd places again, and that she would fear for her family and friends’ safety for the rest of her life.
“I will flinch at the sound of heavy rain or hail on a roof” or other sudden sounds, she said.
She has felt “irrational guilt” about taking up paramedics’ time when she wasn’t a victim of a bullet.
“That account reflects the mindset of hundreds” of people at the mall, said Deputy Solicitor Suzanne Mayes of the 11th Circuit Solicitor’s Office.
The father of a teenage victim and another man who was a victim were also in court but did not speak.
A Columbia Police Department victim’s advocate spoke on behalf of those who couldn’t be there.
Many wanted to be in court, Tressa Dixon said, but they could not come because of their injuries or the pain they’re dealing with.
Court testimony gave specifics about a 73-year-old victim.
The woman is still in critical conditions with “severe and life altering injuries” in an intensive care unit, Mayes said. The woman’s sister, a retired nurse, told the court through Dixon that while she wasn’t at the mall, she also was a victim. Her life has been upended by her sister’s shooting, Dixon said.
The parents of two juvenile victims told the court through Dixon that their children have been “traumatized tremendously” to the point that they no longer want “anything to do with the mall from here on out.”
Municipal Court Judge Jessica Mangum denied bond for both defendants, Marquise Love Robinson, 20, and Jewayne M. Price, 22. Each is charged with attempted murder, unlawful carrying of a pistol and nine counts of assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature, police said.
Mangum told the court about another victim of Saturday’s incident — the community.
“Every citizen has been affected by what happened at Columbiana mall that day,” she said. “Every citizen now carries a fear that they didn’t have before — that this has happened in our community.
This story was originally published April 19, 2022 at 2:44 PM.