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I was at a hair salon in the mid section of the centre (above the Pick n Pay) when it all happened. We heard people screaming and running past us, we quickly locked the doors to the salon and stayed away from windows.
We were told all clear and then I went to go look for my friend and that is where I saw two bodies and blood on the floors of the bottom level.
I had phoned 10111 to report the shooting and after about 5 minutes of waiting I was put through to an operator who did not even know how to spell Bedford centre. After spelling out Bedford Centre to her she told me police were already there but it had been a good 30 minutes before we heard anything of the police on scene.
I decided to phone Bedford Centre management in which case they switched their phones off and could not be reached. We never heard anything from the management and the response from on site security was poor. When I walked to the scene there were around 5-6 guards walking around not knowing what they were doing. As I started walking back people started screaming and running again ( this is when I think the suspects started moving around the centre ) and I ran back to the salon and then about 5 minutes after I started seeing law enforcement services slowly walking to the scene.
In my opinion I understand things like this are not easy to handle and deal with but the lack of prompt response or communication is evidence of lack of any form of response plan to a situation like this.
I would imagine Bedford Centre brings in tens of millions each month why can they not afford proper security and measures to ensure the safety of their clients?
I am also very disappointed in the police response and in my experience there I had never felt more abandoned by my government. I know the news reported that the police engaged them, but from my side there were no police officers for a while in the mall.
We were told all clear and then I went to go look for my friend and that is where I saw two bodies and blood on the floors of the bottom level.
I had phoned 10111 to report the shooting and after about 5 minutes of waiting I was put through to an operator who did not even know how to spell Bedford centre. After spelling out Bedford Centre to her she told me police were already there but it had been a good 30 minutes before we heard anything of the police on scene.
I decided to phone Bedford Centre management in which case they switched their phones off and could not be reached. We never heard anything from the management and the response from on site security was poor. When I walked to the scene there were around 5-6 guards walking around not knowing what they were doing. As I started walking back people started screaming and running again ( this is when I think the suspects started moving around the centre ) and I ran back to the salon and then about 5 minutes after I started seeing law enforcement services slowly walking to the scene.
In my opinion I understand things like this are not easy to handle and deal with but the lack of prompt response or communication is evidence of lack of any form of response plan to a situation like this.
I would imagine Bedford Centre brings in tens of millions each month why can they not afford proper security and measures to ensure the safety of their clients?
I am also very disappointed in the police response and in my experience there I had never felt more abandoned by my government. I know the news reported that the police engaged them, but from my side there were no police officers for a while in the mall.
