Truth about ASI and Mall Violence

The following are statistical commonalities of an ASI;

• Most ASI last between 8 to 15  minutes.
• 98% of active killers act alone .
• 80% have rifles and 75% have more than one weapons (on average about 3 weapons per incident.)
• ASI shooter typically ambushes their target by surprise and then hunts down stunned and paralyzed bystanders .
• They are not confrontational when police presence are visible, and surrender quickly when confronted with an armed person .
• 90% of the shooter commits suicide on-site .
• 22% of the shooter taking their own life before the police can respond.
• From events profiled from 2004 to 2008, 67% of the shooters were between the age of 15 and 25, while 33% are older than 25.
• Unarmed civilian have interrupted or ended an ASI episode 50% of the time .*
• Armed civilian have interrupted or ended an ASI episode 25% of the time .

*This is not advocating unarmed civilian should attempt to engage a shooter. Law Enforcement recommends civilian should either hide or getaway from the shooter and leave the confrontation to the police.

Recent Major Mall Shooting Accidents

Date	Location	Mall Name	Wound	Death
5/29/1972	Raleigh, NC	North Hills Mall	8	4
2/21/1983	Baton Rogue, LO	Mall of Louisiana	1	0
10/30/1985	Delaware County, PA	Springfield Mall	7	3
6/24/1988	Plantation, FL	Broward Mall	1	0
4/23/1990	Atlanta, GA	Perimeter Mal	4	1
8/5/1996	Gloucester County, NJ	Deptford Mall	2	2
6/21/1998	Brooklyn, NY	Fulton Mall	8	0
4/28/2000	McKees Rocks, PA	Robinson Town Center	0	2
12/23/2001	Los Angeles, CA	Slauson Super Mall	3	0
11/18/2004	St. Petersburg, FL	Gateway Shopping Mall	1	3
2/13/2005	Kingston, NY	Hudson Valley Mall	2	0
11/20/2005	Tacoma, WA	Tacoma Mall	6	0
5/27/2006	Oklahoma City, OK	Crossroads Mall	1	1
11/18/2006	Annapolis, MD	Westfield Annapolis Mall	2	0
2/12/2007	Salt Lake City, UT	Trolley Square Mall	4	6
4/29/2007	Kansas City, MO	Ward Parkway Center	2	4
6/13/2007	Columbia, SC	Columbiana Shopping Center	1	1
11/27/2007	Houston, TX	Greenspoint Mall	0	2
12/5/2007	Omaha, NE	Westroads Mall	4	9
1/26/2008	Jacksonville, FL	Regency Square Mall	1	1
2/2/2008	Tinley Park, IL	Lane Bryant Store	1	5
3/15/2008	Tukwila, WA	Westfield Southcenter Mall	1	0
4/3/2008	Miami, FL	Dolphin Mall	0	0
6/17/2008	Tampa, FL	Lakeland Mall	1	0
7/2/2008	Atlanta, GA	Popular Coffee Shop	2	0
10/8/2008	Nashville, TN	Knoxville Center Mall	1	1
11/5/2008	West Ashley, FL	Citadel Mall	1	1
12/23/2008	Rockville, MD	Westfield Wheaton Shopping Centre	3	0
3/26/2009	Moreno Valley, CA	Moreno Valley Mall	4	0

In the 30 shooting profiled on the table, 29 of the suspect were male. The sole female shooter was Sylvia Seegris , who was 25 years old when she started her rampage on October 30, 1985. On that day, she entered the Springfield Mall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she was armed with a Ruger Mini 14 rifle and fired twenty rifle rounds. In the process, two men and a two-year old toddler were killed and seven bystanders were wounded.

When she was disarmed and restrained by an unarmed shopper, she was asked why she did what she did. Sylvia said, “My family makes me nervous”. Like Robert Hawkins, Sylvia Seegrist had a long history of mental disturbances, which includes extensive struggle with paranoid schizophrenia, and she was committed and discharged from mental institution numerous times.
Despite the gruesome violence that occasionally surface around malls, and the number of people caught up in the rampage, malls are some of the safest public spaces in the world. Newer American malls are developed away from crime-heavy area for safety reason as well as demographic.  In the 37 years profiled mall shooting, only 30 shooting spree were recorded, and the total wounded were at 76 and total death at 48. While this seems like a large number, according to International Council of Shopping Centers, 190 million people visit the U.S. malls a month.

Malls are among the safest environments in American social life. It is where we work, play, socialize and relax. Violence at the mall is dramatic because it happens so rarely and when it does happen, it is also intense and dramatized by the media reporting. The extreme and rare nature of ASI at the mall creates unfounded fear and irrational dread. With increasing awareness, improved security training, and more vigilant guards, mall violence will surely be as rare as a movie about a mall robbery that ends happily.

(End.)