There are two ways to look at every situation, and the wild story of an innocent photographer working in a shopping mall who got mistaken for an active shooter is no different.
On the one hand, it’s blackly comic, as it’s hard to imagine how anyone mistook his gimbal for a gun. On the other, it’s harrowing to think what might’ve happened had the police who responded to the incident not reacted with cool heads.
TikTok user Kane aka @prettyflackotv went viral for sharing a video of the shocking moment in question. His original video is a brief update from the moment it happened, with Kane swirling his camera around to show the various cops, heavily armed with shields and protective gear, in the room with him. Some of them look just as relieved as he is, smiling goofily at the camera, while others look a lot more gruff, clearly annoyed to have wasted their time.
For those desperate for more info, the story naturally hit the media, so we have the full details. As Times Now reported, a large police presence swooped down on Yorktown Center Shopping Mall in Lombard, Illinois on Tuesday, April 23 after they received reports of an armed man on the premises. Only once they got there did they discover whoever called them had mistaken a photographer’s tripod for a rifle.
Kane himself discussed his side of the story on the Delete Kings podcast. He explained that he was in the middle of a shoot (that is, a photography shoot) at the mall and was initially positioned by a window, which is presumably where whoever called the cops got a glimpse at his camera set-up and put 2 + 2 together to make 5. Kane was then completely thrown for a loop when the police stormed the place. “I feel that energy, bro, they all start coming in. I turn to the right — the other cops coming to this side,” he recalled. “He locked eyes with me,” Kane described, about one cop in particular, “and he started walking towards me.”
Kane must’ve been pretty terrified to be surrounded by all these armored cops, so he admitted that he didn’t realize it was all a mixup to do with his tripod at first. “I didn’t even think of that til after the fact,” he stressed. By the looks of his viral video, however, it seems like the situation was able to be deescalated without any damage and no harm was done.
Things were extremely tense there for a while, though. “Naw because I work at that mall and let me say everybody was scared af,” replied someone in the comments. Hilariously, Kane responded, admitting that he was in the same boat: “Lmfaooo bro I didn’t know who the shooter was whole time.”
Others feel like Kane needs to get revenge on whoever reported him to the cops. “I hope you found out who called,” they wrote, to which Kane replied: “We’re still looking.” Then again, maybe the sight-impaired civilian was closer to the truth than they knew. “Definitely was a shooter in the building,” someone else quipped.
We can laugh now, but like Kane says, things could’ve gone “south” fast if the police had reacted differently. Thanks to Lombard PD for taking the time to investigate the situation and not going in all guns blazing.
