HENRICO, Va. (WTVR)--Just over a week ago, a parking lot at Regency Square Mall was full of cruisers and crime tape. A single shot had sent 40 shoppers scattering in a rush for the exits.
Tuesday night we heard from a Vietnam vet who had to scoop up his wife of 43-years and rush her to a nearby hospital.
"I knew what it was," said James Owens, about that afternoon at the mall. He was shot in 1966 in Vietnam and never thought he'd have to run from gunfire more than half a century later, especially while shopping with his wife at the Western Henrico mall.
“[It was] loud gunfire,” said Owens. “Just one shot is what I heard."
Owens says panicked shoppers scattered in every direction, and in the process he says someone trampled on his wife Barbara.
“Somebody stepped on her heel,” he said. “I don't know what happened after that. She said someone knocked her down and went over top of her."
Barbara Owens has been hospitalized since last Monday, suffering from a shattered shoulder and several broken ribs.
“The doctors tried to rebuild it at first, but it didn't work,” Owens said. “So they had to replace it."
Barbara will be moved to a rehab facility as soon as Wednesday.
Meanwhile police have made an arrest in the case; they announced the arrest of Moses Bryant last week, who they say was the triggerman.
James Owens says while the incident certainly rattled his nerves a bit, he will continue to shop at Regency Square.
“It could happen anywhere. It could happen in front of my house,” he said. “I'm not living in fear.”
Owens asked anyone who hears his story to keep his wife Barbara in their prayers. He said her road to recovery will take at least a year.
