Allen Mall shooting: Moving forward months after mass shooting claims lives of shoppers

It’s been over nine months since a gunman walked onto the property at the Allen Premium Outlets and opened fire, killing eight innocent people.

On May 6, 2023, a man armed with several weapons stopped his car in the south parking lot and opened fire on shoppers at the sprawling outdoor shopping center. Among those killed were three children, including two young sisters and a boy who died alongside his parents. Three other adults were killed, including a mall security guard who died helping shoppers move to safety.

The massacre sent hundreds of shoppers at the Allen Premium Outlets scrambling for cover in shops, storerooms and closed hallways. Allen, a multicultural suburb of 105,000, is left as the latest U.S. community rent by an eruption of violence in a year that has seen an unprecedented pace of mass killings.

 It was the ninth mass shooting in Texas in 14 years. Nationwide, there was extensive coverage of the shooting and vigils held in the aftermath. Eventually, normalcy was restored but that wasn’t the case for everyone. For some whose lives were spared that day, the trauma remains.

NBC 5 spoke to one of the survivors about the mental and emotional trauma that comes with living through a mass shooting.

On May 6th, 2023, everything changed for Niqi Crump.

"I can't say that I'm the same prior to that event. I don't think I'll ever feel the same feelings that I felt prior to that event without a little bit of fear, a little bit of sadness."

It's been roughly nine months since that day. The day she found herself running and hiding for her life.

"I think I was the most conscious of my body. Very tense. I remember I was shaking," said Crump. "I didn't know what to think. I didn't know where information was going to come next."

The last time NBC 5 spoke with Crump it was just days following the tragedy. Today, emotions and memories linger as she visits the very place where she says so much of her peace was stolen.

"Really just a lot of pieces of my childhood were built here," said Crump. "I worked here before I went to college, trying to get money, I worked at two different stores before I went to college."

Crump was working at the mall as an adult this time when a man walked onto the property and started shooting. The shots could be heard from the body camera footage worn by a police officer who happened to be working nearby at the time. The footage was released to NBC 5.

"When your normal is upset and you don't really know how to fix it, you kind of just want to give up a little. And at this point, I was kind of at my lowest. I wanted to give up a lot," Crump said.

She can now be counted in the growing number of mass shooting survivors.

According to the Gun Violence Archive, 656 mass shootings were reported and verified in the United States in 2023. In a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, 57% of U.S. teens are worried about a mass shooting at school. As for parents of those teens, that number jumps six percentage points to 63%.

Crump said she's sought therapy after the shooting and decided not to return to work at the outlets.

"I have been talking a professional," she said. "Being stuck in an environment where I had the lowest of my feelings experienced, I wanted to remove myself from that to feel better."

Crump took some time to reflect on the past nine months and came to one pointed conclusion.

"It happened, but it shouldn't have. It shouldn't have. No matter whose world it is, it needs to stop," Crump said.