New Jersey Mall by Addison Jordan

Summary: On Saturday night police evacuated a mall in New Jersey after people mistook a car explosion for gunfire, law enforcement official said. Originally, they had thought that there was a shooting at the Westfield Garden State Plaza Mall due to a twitter post.

           

A law enforcement officer told CNN that a car battery or fuel tank caught on fire and caused a small explosion, creating the noise some people thought was gunfire,

           

            "Due to that car fire ... smoke started entering the mall there," Lt. Kenneth R. Ehrenberg of the Paramus Police Department told CNN affiliate WABC. "At some point, we received a call; people said they heard loud noises, possibly shots in that area of the mall. Nobody saw any gunman. Nobody saw anybody shooting, anything."

           

            The police interviewed the owner of the car, and he was cleared.

Last fall there was a random shooting at the mall, so I am sure that people were extremely nervous when they heard, what appeared to be gunshots.  In the earlier incident, the shooter fired at least 6 shots, but fortunately did not hit anyone.  He was later found dead, from apparently shooting himself. 

Analysis: This is a bad and good situation at the same. It is bad because it put everyone at the mall in panic and also a man lost his car. The good part about this situation was that no one got hurt.   There could have been injuries due to people panicking and injuring one another trying to run away.  I am sure that the people, who heard the noise, were terrified.

Link: http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/11/us/new-jersey-mall-incident/index.html?hpt=us_c2