PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. – Surveillance video from inside the Pembroke Lakes Mall shows the scary scene when shots rang out and shoppers began running for their lives.
Pembroke Pines Police Department said that on Friday at 2:14 p.m., two men approached Elite Fine Jewelry inside the mall. While inside, one of the suspects began to smash the glass displays while another suspect began to grab jewelry out of the cases.
That's when a store employee, who had a concealed weapon, began shooting at the men. The suspects have been identified as Marquise Jamaal Wiley, 31, and Markess Sherman, 32, both of Miami Gardens.
Gabriela Arraiz, who works at Charmed Jewelry, a kiosk inside the mall told Local 10: ”The guy that works here, he tells me just run, run. We started running. There was people that fell down and it was crazy.”
It was chaos and craziness, people were screaming, Arraiz said.
One woman, who ran out of the mall, said she heard four shots. Another woman said there were kids that didn’t know where to go. An employee Local 10 spoke with said she is still traumatized from the experience.
Pembroke Pines Police Captain Eric Abrahamson described what happened: “One of the adult male suspects began to smash out glass cases, the other male began to retrieve items from within the glass case of the business. At that time, an adult male, an employee of the victim business, withdrew a firearm and began firing at the suspects.”
Wiley and Sherman were shot. They were loaded onto stretchers after fire rescue responded and taken to a nearby hospital. No one else was hurt during the incident.
The suspects remain hospitalized in stable condition and in police custody. Pembroke Pines police said the pair will be charged with armed robbery.
The store employee who shot the robbery suspects has not been criminally charged at this time, according to Pembroke Pines police, who also told Local 10 their name has not been released due to the “investigation being considered active.”