ASHEBORO N.C. – For 2 minutes on Tuesday afternoon officers with the Asheboro Police Department thought they were racing towards the call no officer wants to hear, but it all turned out to be a misunderstanding.
The afternoon of Tuesday March 22nd officers with the Asheboro Police Department had been on the scene of a shooting on Kemp Blvd where a 19-year-old and two juveniles had been shot for just shy of two hours. At the same time deputies and troopers were out on Vision Drive with a driver who was being arrested for DUI after being chased down by a DMV officer who saw the driver firing a gun into the air while driving down the road.
In the midst of all that, at 6:10 pm, a call came into the Randolph County 911 center. A confused caller was reporting a possible active shooter at the 5 Below at the Randolph Mall. Just minutes later officers were notified of the incoming call and they jumped in their patrol cars and hit the gas pedal hard enough they may have voided a warranty or two, off to possibly confront an active shooter.
Thankfully it was only another minute or two before 911 operators, mall security, and officers realized it was a false alarm due to a misunderstanding. A family member of mall security had called into 5 Below where they worked saying they had received a call from another family member who had heard that 3 people had been shot at the mall. The employee at 5 Below then called 911. Like a bad version of the telephone game the shooting the 911 callers family member had heard about was the same shooting police were already on the scene of on Kemp Blvd.
Once it was clear there was no threat officers cleared the scene.