A robbery at a North Dallas Costco may have exposed another issue. While men raided a jewelry case, one customer tells us he had nowhere to run.
Police said three men, armed with a pickaxe and a gun, walked into the Costco at 8055 Churchill Way just before 3 p.m. Sunday afternoon, smashed a case and took off with jewelry. A fourth man drove the getaway car, a white four-door sedan.
Matt Jackson was shopping with his wife at the time.
"We hear this really loud crash and out of nowhere, people just start sprinting down the aisles," said Jackson. "The thing that people were yelling as they were running was, 'Gun!'"
At the time, Jackson didn't know exactly what was happening. He just knew his life could be in danger. He ran for the nearest emergency exit and said it wouldn't open.
"Am I going to die, is this how it ends, like why aren't these doors opening? And I see people around me, this look of fear that I've never seen in people before," said Jackson.
Jackson said he watched people try other emergency exits; none would open. Some later posted about it on Twitter. Jackson filed a complaint with the Dallas Fire Marshal's office.
A fire inspector investigated the complaint on Monday. He determined the doors were working but were on a 15-second delay before they would open.
The delay is a building code allowance that can be granted upon request. In this case, the fire marshal's office said, Costco requested the 15-second delay to minimize theft.
Building codes say that the City of Dallas can also approve a delay of up to 30 seconds if a business requests it.
The codes say the only automatic deactivation requirements for delayed emergency exits are either for a power outage or a fire.
Costco did nothing wrong, and no violations or other obstructions were found.
But in an age where cases of active shooter scares are becoming more prevalent, Jackson believes the emergency exit delay compromises customer safety.
"If the primary objective to protect your merchandise than your people, I would like this Costco to change its policy," said Jackson. "It's a bad policy, it's a scary thing to be in a situation where you don't know what's going on and you feel like you're not able to escape."
Clear signs were posted on the doors, saying they would open after 15 seconds. Those signs are a requirement by the city.
For Jackson, though, 15 seconds was too long in what he thought may have been a life or death situation.
He said, when the door didn't open within a few seconds, he followed the crowd to a back door that was partially blocked by a pallet.
"People are forced single file through this door because of the extra traffic and there are kids screaming," Jackson said.
Thankfully, everyone made it out safely. But Jackson says, he won't go back to that Costco anytime soon, until their emergency exits the second you need them.
We reached out to Costco and they declined to comment, citing the ongoing robbery investigation.
Mass shooting expert, John Matthews, said businesses should conduct risk assessments to determine if the loss of property is more important than saving lives in a dicey situation.
"You want to put distance between you and that shooter, and when you hit those fire doors--you have to wait before they open up," Matthews said.
Matthews has over 30 years of law enforcement experience and is the Executive Director of the Community Safety Institute.
He says that exiting is the first thing anyone should do in an active shooter situation or if someone has a gun.
"That gunman is going to know the choke points of the building, which would likely be the front," he said. "You need to be able to get out of an alternative exit."