'Someone has been shot': 911 calls detail panic, chaos during Easton Town Center shooting

One of the last 911 calls Columbus police received about Sunday evening's shooting at Easton Town Center didn't come from anyone at the mall.

It came from Trenise Turner, the mother of 15-year-old Ra'Shawyn Carter.

"My son got shot at Easton," she said. "Can you tell me where they transported him to?"

Turner tells dispatchers she went to OhioHealth Grant Medical Center and Mount Carmel St. Ann's hospital but has not yet been able to find her son, who was taken to Mount Carmel East hospital.

The 911 dispatcher transfers Turner to the felony assault unit, where a detective who was not investigating Sunday's shooting took her contact information and promised to have someone call her back as soon as they could.

The news Turner ultimately got, that her son was dead, was the tragic aftermath of a shooting that caused more than 30 calls to 911 dispatchers and panic at the shopping center.

The first call, which was received by dispatchers at 6:12 p.m. Sunday, was from a woman near the Amazon Style store in the mall area. She tells dispatchers she saw a teenager "body slam" a security guard at the mall and that the guard likely needed help.

About halfway through the call, yelling can be heard as well as someone in the background mentioning a gun. The woman gathers herself and continues speaking with the dispatcher.

"They just said there’s a gun in the mall, like near Amazon Style," the woman says. "I think we heard something. We’re all huddled in the bathroom."

The calls, which continued in earnest for about 15 minutes, were largely from people wanting to report what they thought was an active shooter at the shopping center.

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At 6:13 p.m., an employee at Lululemon calls 911 to say a shooting happened outside the store. The customers and employees were in a back room at the store with the store's front doors locked.

"Someone has been shot outside of our store, yes," the employee said. "There were a bunch of kids running. … Everyone just saw it happen and ran to the back in fight or flight."

An employee at a different store called 911 to report something, but he was not sure what.

"I saw a crowd just start going crazy inside the mall and cops started running as well," he said.

The dispatcher told him there had been a shooting and to keep everyone inside.

Two 13-year-olds have been arrested and charged in relation to the shooting in Franklin County Juvenile Court. The Dispatch is not naming the suspects at this time because of their age.

Many of the 911 callers disconnected after they were told that officers were on the scene. A few, however, called 911 with other requests.

One woman called to ask dispatchers what she should do.

"I’m at Easton, and I just ran out of the movie theater, and nobody’s telling me what to do," she said.

Dispatchers told the woman that she needed to keep herself safe and stay where she was.

About three minutes after the shooting was first reported, a woman called dispatchers from the shopping center and said she may know where two suspects were.

"One of them had a gun," she told dispatchers. "They’re on foot. They’re standing in the doorway of Jimmy John’s."

Around 8:30 p.m., someone called to say they were at Easton when the shooting happened and may have cellphone video of a suspect in the case. Dispatchers took their contact information and passed it along to detectives.

Court records indicate police found the two 13-year-olds at a restaurant and arrested them. One of the suspects is charged as a juvenile with murder and tampering with evidence for allegedly shooting Carter and then placing the gun used into a trash can. The other teen is charged as a juvenile with obstruction of justice for reportedly lying to investigators about being with the other suspect and knowing about the shooting.

bbruner@dispatch.com

@bethany_bruner

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: 911 calls detail panic, chaos during Easton Town Center shooting