shots fired? contingency in action

that's what they said...but i didn't hear any...in my retirement dotage i have aquired a "retirement job" ( for reasons which will remain my own ) at a branch of a "major retailer" in a surban mall...in the receiving department...we had a truck today and had finished unloading it and had loaded the return truck so it was time for a break after five hours of steady work...i went out to my vehicle about eleven a.m., ate something, and was perusing a book ( assignment in utopia by eugene lyons ) when at approximately eleven twenty people, including the staff at the store, came stampeding out every available exit...unusual...i though, "well, either a fire or someone is shooting"...it was the latter although not in the store ( in the mall actually ) and i did not hear anything...at approximately eleven twenty five local law enfocement began to noisily arrive and ten minutes later we were all hearded back to the mattrress department and pretty much locked in the store...i counted forty one people ( including a scattering of customers ) looking somewhat bewildered and mildly confused...this did not last as within five minutes virtually all of them had their noses in their smart phones...except for perhaps five and the guy who was stretched out on a couch in the furniture department across the aisle catching up on some sleep...( i have a flip phone and yes i did get a text from my eldest who had received an alert to "avoid the mall because of police activity"...i sent reassurances about my well-being )...this was staus quo for the next ninety minutes of being "locked-down" and it is startling how boring the aftermath of a shooting can be...conversation, already minimal thanks to the phone business, dwindled to near total silence and i regretted not grabbing eugene's book as i went back in...then again i fully expected to finish a shift since retail is loathe to lose perfectly good sales time just because of some random violence...this did not happen...stymied by the workings of law enfocement...after the nintieth minute had passed we were told to grab out coats, go out into the mall through a specific store exit, and be prepared to present our state issued photo id on demand...i did so and, after being frisked for "weapons" ( i did report to the frisking officer that i had two razor knives...he seemed unimpressed ), was told to exit through specific mall doors, passing though a phalanx of riot shields, helmeted police, and an awfully lot of people toting assault rifles and practicing stringent trigger finger discipline...i am assuming that each of them profiled me as a recreational drug user/abuser ( based, mostly, on the hair...the beard was concealed bhind a mask ) even though i abjured intoxicants in 1986 as a sure death trap if i did not...self preservation won that argument...so i got to "retire" and i got to go home early today after a "shooting incident"...weird how life can work out...i have no clue if shots were actually fired of if a miscreant was apprehended...i may check the media...i amy skip it and lean on the "grapevine" for the details...surely someone in retail will research them...or exaggerate them...or invent them...take your pick...we are all children of mcluhan now.