Loud bangs set off a chaotic afternoon at International Plaza late Tuesday afternoon, as three unknown men entered Mayors Jewelry Store, proceeding to smash the glass display cases with hammers, stealing $300,000 in merchandise of Rolex watches in the process. In less than a minute, the robbers were in and out, showing that this robbery was premeditated. As normal shoppers heard the noise, many mistook the loud bangs to be gunshots, causing panic amongst the crowds, shoppers and employees began to rush into stores and seek shelter.

“We thought it was gunshots, all I saw was people panicking,” reports Jerome Jackson, a supervisor at Brookstone, a fellow store in the plaza. This promoted the police to treat the incident as an “active shooter” response, leading to the ambush of false reports on social media.

Flooded with a range of authority, including the FBI and U.S Marshals, officers responded to the scene, determining that there was actually no guns fired at the mall. During the summer, the Tampa Police practiced a mock drill of a robbery, creating a notable difference in how they responded to the scene.  After reporting to the scene, blood droplets were found with scattered glass inside of Mayors, but no injuries were reported. International mall being such a popular and large mall in size, it was difficult for authorities to pin-point an exact location of where to start their initial search of the mall.

“That was our biggest challenge, and it’s such a large mall, in trying to secure it and determine exactly what was going on,” reported Deputy Chief Brian Dugan.

Officials believe the three robbers fled through the parking garage in a gray Dodge Ram Sport pickup truck, which is believed to belong to one of their deputies whose wife reported the car missing a short time before the International robbery while shopping in Brandon Mall. Mall authorities are searching through surveillance in attempt to pin the three robbers. The biggest question is how the thieves were able to get away with heavy police presence along with the call being responded to at an urgent pace. The biggest priority was to respond to the threat inside of the mall, but it all happened in such a short amount of time. Bystanders watched in fear as the three robbers fled the mall.

“We grabbed our cameras. We saw the guys run out of the store by the Champs exit. There were three guys,” Kevin Salcedo told reporters after being moved outside of the mall.

Currently, police are still looking for the suspects and are taking any leads that anyone has to offer to help with the investigation.

FSA Questions

1. Define the word
2. In the article, what were the loud bangs described as by shopper?
3. Give 2 sentences supporting your answer from #2.
4. How much merchandise was taken from the Mayors Jewelry store?
5. What type of response was taken by police in action to the call?