GREENWOOD, Ind. — For the first time since the deadly shooting inside Greenwood Park Mall, we're hearing the 911 calls made by more than a hundred people, reporting the danger and seeking help.
They're difficult to listen to.
And there are a lot of them.
In fact, about 50 that came into the Johnson County dispatch center had to roll over to Bartholomew County Dispatch, Johnson County's backup when it gets overwhelmed.
We're hearing these calls on a day when witnesses who were in the mall, many in the food court, met with police to get what they left behind.
When gunfire erupted Sunday, amid chaos and calls to 911, shoppers and workers at Greenwood Park Mall had one mission:
Run.
Hide.
Get somewhere safe.
"Everyone was running. Everyone saying, 'We need to leave. People need to get out of the mall' because there's something going on," said Carson Robbins, a Sally's Beauty employee.
Another witness, who didn't want to share her name, was waiting out the rain in the food court with her husband and in-laws when the shooting started.
She thought it was fireworks at first. She'd never heard a gunshot until Sunday. Then she realized this was trouble.
"We heard the noise and we started running," she said, "and what was the most traumatic part for me was that because of the noise, I started running, my aged parents, my in-laws, weren't with me and then two seconds later I'm like 'I left my in-laws!' They couldn't run as fast. We got them and then a very kind lady from Kay Jewelers pulled up her shutters and she said, 'Get in' and we, like, crawled in."
During the danger, like everyone else, she dropped everything.
Police said 200 personal items were left behind in the food court, scattered on the floor, on chairs and on tables.
Shopping bags with new clothing, candles, makeup and a lot of school supplies.
Two days later at the Greenwood Police training center, people picked up their belongings, a surreal and sobering errand for those who witnessed a deadly shooting.
One couple came in and said they left their child's stroller.
Carson Robbins left his ID, after hiding for an hour and then talking with police.
"I guess just heat of the moment, forgot to give it back," he said.
The woman with her in-laws retrieved a shopping bag of shirts, tags on, receipt inside.
Although she said considering what happened the day she bought them, she isn't sure she wants to wear them.
And, she doesn't want to return them because she never plans to step foot in a shopping mall again.
But these witnesses also shared survival stories and every single person expressed gratitude to Eli Dicken, the 22-year-old who stopped the gunman 15 seconds after the suspect opened fire on the food court.
"I find him to be an absolute hero," Robbins said.
"He was a godsend, I swear," another witness said. "I felt the presence of God in Eli that day. We would not be alive if it weren't for Eli. Like, I cannot believe there was an armed citizen there."
If you were in the food court or the mall Sunday and did not retrieve items left behind, you can call Greenwood Police at 317-882-9191.