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All but a few of the 120 stores at the Allen Premium Outlets shopping center reopened as one of the region’s busiest retail destinations tries to get back to normal 25 days after the May 6 mass shooting.
The Simon-owned shopping center reopened at 10 a.m. Wednesday while shoppers and employees returned to the scene of chaos and tragedy a few weeks ago.
Shoppers waited in line at Tory Burch to look at shoes and handbags, at Adidas to look at athletic wear and Gap for clothing. They carried shopping bags back and forth to cars while extra security including police officers were on the scene.
Global apparel retailer H&M was one of the few stores that did not reopen, along with local shoe stores Escros and women’s apparel store Papaya.
It was in front of H&M that a gunman opened fire on shoppers and employees, killing eight and injuring at least seven. Lights were dimmed inside H&M and a handwritten sign taped to the inside of the glass door told customers that they would need to shop elsewhere.
“We are closed temporarily,” the sign at H&M said. “We will open back up Monday, June 12th at 10 am. Sorry for the inconvenience. We look forward to seeing you soon - H&M.”
Stores including H&M and Fossil said they did pay employees for time missed during the 23 days that the mall was closed.
Mall employees and store managers are still shaken by the events that happened at their workplace when a man with a semiautomatic rifle and wearing tactical gear indiscriminately gunned down more than a dozen people.
Marcus Kergosien, manager of the Zwilling Factory Store, had a small framed tribute to one of the victims displayed on a table in his store.
On May 6, Elio Cumana-Rivas, 32, died on the sidewalk in front of Zwilling while scared shoppers, including a father with a baby in a stroller, found safety in the store.
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“I saw him stand up after he was shot with his hands up as if he was asking for mercy when the gunman shot him again,” Kergosien said. Minutes later the gunman was killed by a police officer a couple storefronts away at the Fatburger.
“We watched him die and we said prayers for him,” Kergosien said.
Kergosien said he wanted to tell his story Wednesday because the more he learned about Cumana-Rivas, the more he mourned a life lost.
“I learned he was here buying a birthday gift for his daughter in Venezuela and was here to work and send money back home to his family,” Kergosien said. “I want to raise awareness.”
He said he was disappointed after hearing about money raised for other victims’ families that Cumana-Rivas’ GoFundMe page only listed $130. He gave $100 six days ago and the total as of Wednesday was still only $230.
Kergosien spoke with the family. His brother wanted to know how many times he was shot and what time he died. “He was shot twice and passed at 3:55 p.m.”
Bullets hit the store’s door frame and the gunman looked inside. In those minutes, Kergosien thought about exiting the store with the shoppers out the back door. He realized they would have met up with the gunman around the corner if he hadn’t been killed.
Brothers Maxwell and Jerry Gum, 16 and 17, returned to work Wednesday at Wetzel’s Pretzels. The Allen High School students were working at the pretzel shop the day of the shooting, and Maxwell returned later to retrieve their car.
“I felt a little shaken up,” he said. “There was trash everywhere, writing on the walls, one said ‘7 dead.’”
The brothers said they were glad to come to work, both for the sense of normalcy and paycheck. The family moved to Texas from Boise, Idaho, a few years ago, and they thought this would be a safe place to live.
“We didn’t have many shootings in Idaho,” Jerry said. “We weren’t ready for this.”
Staff writer Sarah Bahari contributed to this report.
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