Yikes.
NASCAR driver and two-time Cup Series champion, Kyle Busch, and his family, were present at the Mall of American in Bloomington, Minnesota, when shots rang out.
According to ESPN, Bloomington police are searching for two suspects they believe are responsible for the shooting this past Thursday. There was allegedly an altercation inside a Nike store, one group left, but two individuals in that group returned and one of them fired three rounds into the store where customers were shopping.
Nobody was struck or injured.
A terrifying situation no doubt, especially with the amount of mass shootings we’ve seen recently. However, it thankfully appears as though this incident was contained to a few people and not a true “active shooter” scenario.
Nevertheless, Kyle Busch talked to the press about navigating that situation with his 7-year-old son, Brexton. The father and son were separate from his wife Samantha at the time.
“It’s hard to explain to a seven year old what really happened and what the severity of it could have bee. Although, thankful that it wasn’t more serious than what it was.
Just always be on your toes I guess, but he’s at the age right now, in those situations, I don’t think Samantha would let him be alone until he was 13 or 14… so all of us have to be mindful in those situations as to what the best way go through that is.
We made it through with the best of our information at that point.”
Kyle’s wife Samantha shared a lengthy post on Instagram recalling the frightening scene:
“We were at the Mall of America yesterday when a shooting happened. We had been spending the afternoon riding the rides in the center of the mall and then the girls split up to shop while the boys stayed for more rides. Then chaos ensued.
I was standing at the entrance of H&M which is on floor 1 when I heard screaming from above. A group of people were running and yelling. My brain instantly thought it was just teenagers being goofy and then a split second later herds of people on levels 2 and 3 were running. Next a wave of people started down our corridor and that’s when I heard people shouting “active shooter in the mall”.
You know the logical thing to do is run out the doors but with Kyle and Brexton still somewhere inside I froze where I was. Thank God when I called Kyle he answered as he and Brex were next in line for a ride and they didn’t know what was happening.
We stayed on the phone with each other while the girls went running outside, getting as much distance from the mall as we could, and the boys made a beeline to the closet parking garage to get out of the building.
People were crying, shouting on cell phones, sirens going off, everyone was confused and didn’t know what was happening, which was the scary part. You didn’t know if it was one person, multiple people, where exactly they were in the mall or outside too, where was it safe to go?
We ended up finding out it was a dispute between two groups that ended in shots fired. It’s a lot to process as an adult but really hard as a parent to explain to your child what happened yesterday.
Why it happened, what to do in a situation like that, what to do if it was another type of situation. How much do you cover without making it worse for them?
Squeezing the family a little tighter today.”
Meanwhile, Kyle Busch will look to secure his second win of the season at Michigan International Speedway.
