After a horrific outlet mall shooting in Allen, Texas left nine dead, including the shooter, and seven injured, two brothers who were working at the Allen Premium Outlets are sharing their experience.
Max Gum and his brother Jerry were working at Wetzel's Pretzels at the outlet mall on Saturday when shots rang out.
"At first I didn't really assume that they were gunshots. I just thought that maybe a neighboring store dropped a few glasses or something like that. It wasn't until a bunch of families ran to the back of the store while I was doing dishes when I realized that something bad was actually going on," Max Gum said on "Fox & Friends Weekend" Sunday.
Max was in the back of the store doing the dishes and was separated from his brother Jerry when a crowd of shoppers flooded into the store running away from shots that erupted around 3:30 p.m.
"I really didn't think that it was like a big shooting. I really thought like a store got robbed and shots got fired or something happened," Max said. "But I really didn't think that it was like this huge thing until halfway through when people were sending me videos of everything."
TEXAS AUTHORITIES CONFIRM 8 DEAD IN ALLEN PREMIUM OUTLETS SHOOTING NEAR DALLAS, SEVERAL MORE INJURED
The brothers had to quickly assess how to respond and where to go.
"We had no idea what to do," Jerry added.
They decided, along with other employees and shoppers, to go into a back hallway behind the stores.
"My first reaction was to just go through the back to the big hallway that is usually used as like a tornado shelter," Max said. "I just kind of assumed that that would be the best spot. I think that's what a bunch of the other stores thought would be a good idea, too, because back there, there were probably 200 or 300 people at that point. And we basically found out as late as you could that there was an active shooter going on."
The ATF Dallas Field Division announced that it was responding to an active shooting situation on Twitter earlier on Saturday. FBI officials were also on scene.
As news of the shooting spread, many were concerned for loved ones, including one Texas man who rushed to the outlet mall to save his pregnant sister-in-law who had been out shopping.
"As soon as I saw that law enforcement was starting to ... allow people to get out, my wife and I actually went over there immediately, and we picked her up," Dominic Murga said on "Fox & Friends Weekend" earlier.
Police chief Brian Harvey said at a Saturday evening presser that a police officer was on an unrelated call nearby when gunshots were heard.
POLICE SEARCHING HOME OF TEXAS SHOOTER WHERE HE LIVED WITH PARENTS: REPORT
"I texted like the group chat with my family in it, probably about 6 minutes after," Max shared. "So my first thought was to get on all my social media and tell everybody that I know not to come to the outlet mall because I know it's like a good place to shop, right? I don't want any of my friends or anything going there now, especially if I don't know if there are going to be cops there any time soon. I wanted to get everybody as far away from there as possible."
Max and Jerry said they were hiding out for upwards of two and a half hours before they were given an all-clear.
"It was really super scary because at one point while we were in the back, there was a bunch of commotion going on from one side. I think at some point someone thought that they saw the shooter. I don't think anything like that actually happened," Max said. "But one side of where we were at just started running as fast as they could to the other side. So that's when I just thought that we were just completely doomed because there really was nowhere to hide. And so I was basically hopeless, pretty much."
The officer at the scene "engaged the suspect and neutralized the threat," according to police. A law enforcement source told Fox News that the suspected shooter is dead and that they believe he acted alone.
Operations Administrator Joshua W. Barnwell told FOX 4 Dallas that he heard at least 30 gunshots and saw around 60 rounds of ammunition on the ground.
Allen Fire Department chief Jonathan Boyd reported that four of the injured victims are stable, while three are still in critical condition. Nine people have died in total, including the suspected shooter – seven at the scene, and two who later succumbed to their injuries.
While both the brothers are okay following the incident, Jerry shared it's been "a lot to take in."
"It's kind of a lot to take in because you read about it or you see it on the news all the time about these shootings. You never think it's going to happen to you. It's kind of crazy... It just slaps in the face with reality. It's pretty crazy."
Murga, after he, his wife and sister-in-law were safely home, decided to step up and provide further assistance to his community. Enlisting the help of his neighbor, Murga gathered water bottles and ice to bring back to those still at the mall.
"We got into his truck, and we went right back up there with the water. We stopped and got like, I don't know, ten bags of ice, put ice in there, went up there and just pulled up and started handing out water to everybody." he said.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
"It was people just crying, hugging, being reunited with their loved ones. It was something that I'll never forget."
Fox News' Andrea Vacchiano contributed to this report.
