Ordinary heroes amid horror
CLACKAMAS, Ore. -- Among the 10,000 people inside Clackamas Town Center during Tuesday’s shooting rampage were ordinary heroes in big ways.
They did simple acts.
A dentist at the mall helping herd customers to a safe hiding spot. Another store employee crowding patrons into a small stock room. And a restaurant serving as a refuge for kids, teaching them how to make pizza.
One of the heroes was Amber Tate. She was shopping when she saw the masked gunman armed with a rifle walk into the mall.
“He looked straight at us, kind of stopped, looked at us and kept walking into the mall,” she said.
Tate had one thought: tell others to stay away by posting a warning on Facebook.
“I immediately said, ‘There’s a gunman in Clackamas Town Center. Don’t go in there,’” she said.
For those inside the mall, JCPenney employee Samantha Dempsey provided refuge to frightened coworkers and customers in the safest spot that came to mind.
“People started screaming … so I turned around, yelled at my associates and said, ‘Go in the stock room. Go! Run! Run,” she said. “And I’m like pushing everybody telling them, ‘Go, go, go.’”
She kept the group in the stock room for an hour, until officers said it was safe to leave.
In the aftermath of the mall tragedy, Dempsey said she would do it again if needed.
“I was scared,” she said. But “my first thought was, ‘We have to keep the customer safe.’”
And some of the heroes tried their hardest to save others, though ultimately it ended up being too late.
When the shots rang out, retired nurse Joan Smith was shopping when she noticed a woman nearby who needed her help. It was Cindy Yuille.
Smith, two other nurses and an emergency room doctor performed CPR and frantically attempted to revive the dying woman.
Still, while they couldn't revive her, the Good Samaritans want Yuille's family to know she wasn't alone.
"She died with dignity, and she died with a lot of care and all the utmost care and help we could give her. And she did not die alone," Smith said. "she did not die alone."
Watch Melanie Wingo's interview with two people who stayed with Cindy Yuill:
God bless the victims, the heroes, and their families in this senseless, horrible tragedy. How anyone could take others' lives in such a cold, calculated manner....like Columbine, like Aurora....
my heart is full. Remember the victims.
So, Amber, I applaud you for doing something. But BEFORE Facebook you should have called 911!!
 @Costco22 13 hours ago Amber posted below that she DID call 911 and the lines were busy so she did the next best thing she could think of to alert as many people as possible -- including trying to reach out to the media as well.
I loved how Amber said, "it just clicked in my brain". She listened to that thought, and followed through with it. She is amazing!
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 @HarryJuku ~ Easy to say after-the-fact, but I imagine that getting a clear shot at Roberts, with him moving around and all these other people running in different directions, might have been a deterring factor for anyone who WAS carrying and even considering such a move... Â
@HarryJuku No, but if they had one they would have stopped it possibly.
 @HarryJuku But they had the smarts to know what to do in the circumstance.Â
God, that quote from the retired nurse urging to the family that the woman didn't die alone almost brings me to tears. So upsetting.
Having survived a war how can there be any such thing as, "Ordinary heroes,,,." ???
I'm very proud of my girlfriend, for I feel she is one of the hero's among many others in this tragedy. Her and another manager were able to get the doors closed at JCP before the gunmen arrived. It's my opinion (of course all the details haven't been released yet) that after the shooting in the Food Court, he was trying to make his escape towards TriMet or Maxx. But when he got to JCP and noticed the store was on lockdown already, he knew it was over. Ended up shooting himself between JCP and Gentle Dental. Had he made it into JCP before they got the doors closed, who knows how this could have turned out.
 @I5Trucker If you don't want to answer i can understand but I am curious as to who your Girlfriend is. I'm wondering if it is Crystal? I used to work at jcp and I considered the employees there my family.Â
this is Amber Tate I did call the police and we weren't able to get through. Dozen people were calling and the lines were jammed. The only thing I could think of was to call news and let all many people know I could. I Had my 2 year old son with me so I wasn't going to run back in the Mall. if you were there might done something different but I had my son life to worry about to. My heart go out to the Victims and there Families I will be praying for them every night. So Thank you .
 @Amber LIke the others said, you did exactly what you needed to do to get out safely and alert as many people as you could.  You are a hero -- especially in your son's eyes! Â
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Don't bother to read and respond to all of these forums and posts. Â There are always people who will question your actions (no doubt you've got a few in your life to deal with so forum posters are just a waste of your time and a distraction you don't need).
 @CTWU  @Amber Couldn't have said it better. You are a hero. Good job!
 @Amber There is no need to explain. Anyone (including myself) would have done the same thing you did.  Â
 @Amber ~  You know, Amber, you did what you were able to do... and going back into the mall with your little son would not have been a rational thing to do...  I heard in one of the press conferences that 9-1-1 was already getting flooded with calls just seconds after the first shot was fired... Â
So it sounds to me like you did the best thing you could have done... you stayed safely outside with your little boy, and you posted a message so others would know not to go into the mall. Â Â
It's very easy for people to criticize after-the-fact and when they weren't there... pay no attention to them... you did just fine..! Â I hope you and your little boy are OK... :-)
As I previously wrote, there are hero's among us that we never see until there is that time of need.....The one that sticks in my mind was on the news this evening. his name is Allen and he took a customer to safety and then returned inside the mall to help others rather than run to safety. He disregarded his well being for his fellows.
Why didn't any of these "so called" hero's think of contacting 911? The woman said he "walked right by her", then posted to fb, to stay away. What about contacting 911 and letting law enforcement know. These are not "hero's", They are COWARDS!!! Oh, gotta post on fb and twitter. NOT!!! Try contacting those who know how to deal with emergencies.
 @Mark It also takes your brain a minute to process what you are seeing and decide (a) if it is real and (b) if there is anything you can do about it which then becomes WHAT you can do about it.
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This is why you need to trust your gut reaction to a serious situation and not downplay what you *think* you saw.
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It is always so much easier to second guess someone's decision in a situation like this than it is to live through it.
@Mark Come on, Mark. Are you just trying to start something? If you read the article, she DID try to call 911. When she couldn't get through, she posted on FB to warn others. You are what is called an armchair quarterback. It's real easy to assess the response of others in an emergency from the comfort and safety of your living room. None of us knows how we would react in the same situation, but I will not slam the efforts of anyone who lived through that horror. They acted, they stayed calm, and they protected total strangers from the moment the first shot rang out. That is not a cowardice. These people are amazing and my hat is off to all of them.
 @Mark Sick "NOT" joke, didn't realize it was still 1991
 @Mark What a snarky comment. Good way to ASSume there, bud.
 @Mark Where does it say they DIDN'T call 911? We already know there were tons of calls to 911 and the first officer arrived within one minute, so clearly they weren't just standing around with their thumb up their butt.
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Personally I think posting to Twitter or Facebook is genius. That message can be seen instantly by many and forwarded and retweeted over and over and over. Could have saved some lives by keeping others out of the mall. My daughter goes to the mall quite often and easily could have been on her way there at the time her best friend called her in tears to tell her what she had seen. Luckily she was out with me, but just as easily could be going to the mall as usual.
@Mark Sorry Marky, you are WRONG. There were 10k people there, some would call 911 and some of the others will rush in where others would not go. Neither the callers nor those who returned are cowards.
 @Mark I agree with Margay1. That is very rude of you to call these people cowards when they did what they knew they had to do to protect others. There were plenty of 9-1-1 calls made.The people inside had no other choice but to find safety and wait. What do you think everyone should have done? Run around in circles? At least there were people that took charge and considered other people's safety instead of just their own.Â
 @Mark ~  Well, gee, Mark...  I heard in one of LE's press conferences that they were getting flooded with calls to 9-1-1 right from the moment the first shots were fired...  now I just wonder where all those 9-1-1 calls came from..?!?  Â
I think many people surprise themselves by doing things that they would never think they would be able to do, such as in this event... Â The "adrenalin rush" probably accounts for some of it, but emergency situations like this can often bring out the best in people, as it very obviously did yesterday at CTC. Â Â
Well done, everybody..! Â :-)
I am so incredibly proud of you Sammy!!! You stepped up and took charge of people's safety and made sure everyone was safe and calm. You deserve to be recognized for your heroic actions.Â