NY Giants Radio Announcer Tells Chilling Story About Being in Mall of America During Active Shooter Situation

New York Football Giants radio announcer Bob Papa shared the chilling story about how he and some of his radio colleagues were stuck in the Mall of America during an active shooter situation.

The Giants were in Minnesota to play the Vikings on Saturday, Christmas Eve. When the team arrived the day before, many organization members decided to take a trip to the Mall of America, but their journey to the mall was cut short after an active shooter situation occurred. Papa explained the scary situation he encountered when he was a guest on WFAN’s Boomer and Gio show Friday morning with guest hosts Jerry Recco and Sal Licata.

“It was pretty crazy,” Papa started. “Typical mall restaurant. People are waiting outside for a table to open up, and all of a sudden, Howard Cross and I, and John Schmeelk, we notice, ‘wow, the restaurant’s really crowded,’ like there’s all these people standing. We were more towards the back of the restaurant, and the waitress came over, and she’s like, ‘yeah, there’s a shooting, the mall is in a complete lockdown, we don’t know what’s happening.'”

Papa explained that the shooting occurred at Nordstrom, right near the restaurant where the three were eating, so he and Cross decided to devise a game plan in case the shooter made it toward the restaurant.

“Howard Cross and I came up with a gameplan as to what we were gonna do because we didn’t know what was happening, if it was an isolated incident or if it was a mass shooting,” Papa continued. “So it was pretty scary for about an hour until we got out of there.”

Licata was intrigued about the plan Papa and Cross made, so Papa elaborated on what they had decided to do if the shooter entered the restaurant.

“We were in the back,” Papa added. “We had just finished our meal, and they were starting to bus the table, and Cross was like, ‘I’m keeping the steak knife.’ So we grab that, and he started determining which tables we were gonna flip and get behind. And then I noticed there was a little waiters’ stand in the back of the restaurant.”

“I’m like, ‘Cross, I’m crawling in there,'” Papa continued. “It was pretty tense there for a while.”

The Giants’ play-by-play announcer couldn’t comprehend why bystanders were near the front of the restaurant with an active shooter situation.

“Some of the people in the restaurant were constantly walking up towards the front to look out through the glass door window. I’m like, ‘are these people nuts?’ Not having any idea what’s going on in the mall. I’m like, ‘these people are crazy. We gotta get to the furthest back part of this place and find a place to sorta barricade ourselves.'”

Papa gave credit to Cross, who was a tight end for the Giants for 13 seasons before he retired to become a broadcaster, for coming up with a strategy in case the shooter entered the restaurant.

Four suspects have been arrested and charged with the shooting.

Listen above via WFAN.

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