God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. (Psalms 46:2)
20 year old Richard Shoop, who entered the Garden State Plaza Mall in Paramus, New Jersey on Monday and began shooting a gun, had entered the shopping center while popular American Rabbi Shmuley Boteach and his family were inside, according to The Times of Israel. Shoop was eventually found with a self-inflicted fatal gunshot wound to the head. According to the police, Shoop did not work at the mall and they are still seeking a possible motive for the shooting.
In a lengthy Facebook post he titled “My Family’s Terror at the NJ Garden State Mall,” Boteach shared Monday night’s dramatic events as an eye-witness, and perhaps a key player in mobilizing NJ police.
As Boteach and the youngest three of his nine children entered the Best Buy electronics store to collect his wife and 15-year-old daughter, they were met with panicked, fleeing customers shouting, “Shooter. Run!”
Boteach described how he and the three children turned around and ran to the parking lot where he attempted to make contact with his wife.
“There is no need to think. I am not in shock but clear-headed. There have been so many shootings lately in America that I know exactly what this is,” Boteach wrote.
After several tense moments the rabbi made contact with his wife and learned his family is in hiding. He called 911 emergency response which advised him to tell his wife to continue hiding and not come out.
Boteach then began to use his political connections to try to end the situation. Boteach is a good freind of New Jersey Senator Cory Booker. Boteach wrote, “I text him in bold letters. ‘CORY THERE IS A SHOOTER IN THE GARDEN STATE MALL!!’”
“His adviser proceeds to call me every few minutes and calls my wife as well. He is an angel from heaven,” wrote Boteach.
Later, Booker himself called Boteach. “Senator Booker calls in terrible anxiety to ask if my wife is OK. At that moment, as if by a miracle, she calls on the other line and tells me that the SWAT teams have come to move them out. I connect the calls on my phone. Cory, ever the gentleman, tells my wife not to panic and he is so happy to hear she is OK. His warmth and caring comforts us both.”
My wife and daughter are safe. It’s a miracle. Thank you, Oh Lord, for your kindness to me and my family, I say to myself,” Boteach ends his post. “I will try and be a better person, a better servant of yours, Oh Lord. Thank you, Lord, for Your protection and goodness.”
