Man grazed by bullet in Columbiana mall shooting says higher powers watched over him
Thomas Moss II felt the gunfire coming at Columbiana Centre mall before a trigger was pulled.
“Trust me when I tell you I saw (a shooter) the split second before things went from bad to worse and it was in that moment my angels or higher power was with me,” Moss said.
Though his sense of danger came quickly, about thirty minutes passed before he realized a bullet had grazed him.
Authorities have said at least 15 people were injured from the shooting and the ensuing chaos at Columbiana Centre in Harbison on Saturday, April 16. The Columbia Police Department charged Jewayne Price, 22, Marquise Robinson, 20, and Amari Smith, 21, with attempted murder, nine counts of aggravated assault and gun offenses in the mass shooting.
The effects of the shooting aren’t confined to those trampled, maimed or shot inside the mall.
A Lexington County prosecutor said that the shooting “shocked the conscious” of an entire community. A judge said the shooting was “terrible for every resident of this community who lost a piece of their security.”
Store employees lost shifts needed to pay bills, businesses lost revenue and the mall itself will be reeling from perceptions of danger, though the mall owners said they’ve put in new security measures, including a gun-sniffing dog.
At court hearings, victims have described a new fear of crowded places.
Moss, who is 39 years old and lives in Red Bank, has worked at the mall for about nine years. A shooting seemed like a far away thought.
“I’m from Brooklyn, New York, seen worse, but never thought I would see anything this stupid in Irmo (or) Columbia,”
But on that Saturday, he saw the gunfight unfolding only feet away from him.
Years of rancor in seconds
The shooting was the culmination of four years of conflict and dispute, according to investigators.
While investigators have not publicly talked about details of the dispute, some specifics have surfaced in bond hearings for the three men charged.
The conflict goes back to 2018, Deputy Solicitor Suzanne Mayes of the 11th Circuit Solicitor’s Office has said.
That year, police charged Price with accessory to murder in the shooting of 18-year-old Amon Rice, The State reported. Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said at the time that a Lower Richland brawl over “teenage drama” precipitated the fatal shooting. Prosecutors eventually dropped the charge against Price, according to court records.
Court hearings have depicted Robinson and Smith as partners in the Columbiana shootout against Price. All three have been denied bond and are being held at the Lexington County Detention Center.
In the last four years, Price’s mother has filed complaints with police about Robinson and Smith harassing her son, said Todd Rutherford, a state representative who is Price’s lawyer, has said in court.
The years-long rancor exploded in seconds in Columbiana Centre on April 16. Moss, the mall employee, witnessed it.
At about 2 p.m., Moss walked out of Gap, where he’d just finished a typical Saturday shift, and into the mall’s main corridor.
There, hundreds of people were passing through. The mall had the typical atmosphere of a busy weekend in Harbison, probably the most popular shopping district in the Midlands. Parents pushed their babies in strollers. Teenagers hung out with their friends.
Moss was one among those hundreds. He was headed to his second job at DTLR, a shoe and clothing store. He took about 20 steps before he sensed trouble, he said.
The way that three men were moving and their gestures indicated they were about to draw guns and start firing, Moss said. One of the men was backing up in a way that hinted a fight was about to start.
Moss stopped and assessed his surroundings. When the first shot went off, he knew which way the return fire would fly and he knew which way to he was going to run. One man raised his arm in a way that made Moss’ mind scream “get ready to run,” and the man fired a shot.
As the men opened fire in the mall’s main corridor near Gap and the food court, Moss felt something warm on the side of his torso as he ran into Garra Fish Spa, a business where people soak their feet in aquariums holding tiny fish that eat detritus.
Witnesses said the gunfire that rang out sounded like hail hitting the roof.
Who shot first hasn’t been revealed by investigators. The most details about the shooting came from Smith’s bond hearing.
At least one bystander was in the direct path of Smith’s gun, Mayes said in court. The bystander would have been shot but was quick enough to get on the ground where bullets whizzed above him. At one point Smith was behind a marquee while firing, according to Mayes.
The mall was thrown into panic. People stampeded towards exits and rushed into stores seeking shelter from the firing. A surveillance camera captured two women throwing themselves on a stroller to protect a baby, according to Mayes. A woman hid under a table in the food court as her daughter beckoned her to run to a nearby exit.
The firing was finished in seconds
At least a dozen bullets, probably more, had torn through the mall, wounding nine people from 16 to 73 years old, according to investigators. At least six others were hurt in the stampede for safety. Mayes said at least one other person was grazed by a bullet, but it’s unclear if she was referring to Moss.
No one died, which Mayes described as “miraculous” although some had significant injuries.
Moss had hid in the bathroom of the fish spa. About three minutes passed before a man came into the spa and said it was all clear.
Over the next hour, police evacuated the mall and searched for the shooters, detaining three people, one of whom was later identified as Price.
In the time between the cessation of the firing and the evacuation, Moss walked through the nearly emptied mall, the store fronts locked down as if closed, eventually going to the parking lot. It took about half an hour for the rush of adrenaline to subside. That’s when he realized he was grazed by a bullet. An off-duty nurse saw he was hurt and dressed his wounds with a trauma kit while he waited for paramedics.
Glad to play the drums
Injured victims have attended bond hearings for the three men charged in the shooting.
A man who was shot in the leg sat in the front row of two of the bond hearings with his wife. He walked out of the court on crutches, his leg wrapped.
Another middle-age woman sat just behind him with her ankle wrapped, a victim of the chaos.
The parents of a shooting victim put their arms around each other at a hearing. Their teenage daughter had been shot in the back, inches from her spine, Mayes told the court.
A young woman with a bandaged head spoke at one of the hearings, telling how a man rammed her with a stroller during the panic and how “the sound of gunshots play through” her head when she tries to sleep.
The 73-year-old woman who was shot had suffered a “life-altering” injury, Mayes said.
The wound Moss received wasn’t just on the surface of his torso.
“Due to the shooting, I don’t see myself being in public with a large presence of people,” he said. But bills still have to be paid “and sitting home scared won’t do anything about them.”
Moss said he believes that when he was those 20 steps away Gap, he sensed the impending danger “because of those watching over me.”
The day after the shooting was Easter.
Moss said he wasn’t much of a church goer, but he put on a good Gospel music playlist and played along on his drum set.
That was how he gave thanks for surviving the shooting.