A Macy’s employee in Clackamas, Ore., is being hailed as a hero for using his knowledge of the shopping complex to hustle customers out of the building during Tuesday’s shooting rampage at the mall that left three people dead.
Allan Fonseca, who works at Lancome counter in Macy’s, was waiting on Jocelyn Lay when they heard shots fired about 3:30 p.m. Thinking quickly, Fonseca got her behind the counter to hide, reported ABC News.
“We both just looked at each other and knew that this was a serious situation and it was a gunman and we both just dove down below the Lancome counter there for a little protection,” Lay told ABC’s Good Morning America. “And the gunfire just kept going off.”
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Fonseca said that because he is familiar with the exits in the mall, he felt that he would be able to help shoppers escape the gunfire.
After escorting Lay to safety, Fonseca returned to the mall and evacuated the lower level of the Macy’s store, and then went back up to the “shooting floor” to look for his co-workers.
Fonseca is a three-time recipient of scholarships from the the LGBTQ Greater Seattle Business Association’s Scholarship Association, and most recently recieved the Don Moreland Memorial Scholarship.
According to the GSBA’s website, Fonseca served as the president of Eagle Pride and as vice president of VOX/Scary Feminists at Eastern Washington University. He hopes to study nursing.
