Orlando Panics as Mall Incident Spurs Evacuation, Fears of Attack

An incident at an Orlando shopping mall on Saturday revealed the fear and panic Orlando citizens are currently experiencing beneath the very thin veneer of calm.

Deputies were called to the Orlando Vineyard Premium Outlets at about 2 p.m.

“Preliminary investigation reveals it was a fight and people panicked,” Orange County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Rose Silva said in a statement. “It is still early in the investigation and deputies are sorting everything out.

The panic ensued because the disturbance morphed into a shooting on social media. Some media reports said chairs being knocked over may have sounded like shots to those closest to the disturbance.

Although there was no evidence of a shooting, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office put the open air mall on lockdown while they conducted a sweep. About an hour after the lockdown was imposed, the mall was reopened.

The incident added to frayed nerves of Orlando residents.

IM DRIVING BY THE ORLANDO PREMIUM OUTLET MALL AND THERE ARE POLICE SURROUNDING THE MALL WITH MACHINE GUNS IN FULL GEAR OH MY GOSH

— sav (@savannah3ann) June 18, 2016

Orlando has been rocked recently, first by the murder of singer Christina Grimmie on June 10, and then by the Sunday massacre of 49 people in the nation’s largest mass shooting. Orlando was also the sight of the death of a 2-year-old Nebraska boy killed by an alligator as he waded in a Disney resort lagoon.

“Tensions are high right now,” said Douglas Dobbs, owner of the Dobbs Funeral Home in Orlando, noting the community consciousness as the funerals of the victims are starting to take place. (For more from the author of “Orlando Panics as Mall Incident Spurs Evacuation, Fears of Attack” please click HERE)

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