ALLEN, Texas — It has been one year since the shooting at Allen Premium Outlets, where eight people were killed. Since that time, the community of Allen is still healing. The city held a number of events to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the tragedy, with Allen Mayor Baine Brooks speaking at a memorial on Monday night. We caught up with Brooks, to ask him how the city has changed in the year since the shooting.
Mayor Brooks, thanks for sitting down with us and meeting with us. Can you believe it's been a year? Has it been a tough year?
Mayor: My pleasure. It's been a fast year. It's been a really quick year. Tough year.
Do you remember where you were when the shooting happened?
Mayor: I was here at the polls. May 6 was Election Day. We just all stopped and gathered in a circle, held hands, and I prayed. And we just came together. There was no division at all. I just left. I said, ‘guys, I got to go.’ And I called my wife on my way home, and I said, ‘cancel our victory party.’ I didn't have an opponent. I said, ‘cancel the party.’
DPS has yet to rule whether this is a hate incident or not. What do you think?
Mayor: I think bad people do bad things in good places and in bad places.
How has your role as the mayor changed now that this has happened?
Mayor: Well, my role started off intense. We had a big shooting. People had a lot of questions, and they wanted a lot of answers. But my role as mayor at that time was to make sure that we were given a consistent message because people wanted to know what was going on.
If you had a chance to say something to the man who started all this, what would you say to him?
Mayor: I don't really know what I would tell him, Jobin. I don't think that's my space. He's got an answer to someone that's got a lot more power than me. So I would tell him good luck with that.
What has changed in Allen since the shooting?
Mayor: One of the big changes is we never thought that this would happen in our community. We never could imagine it. We never thought that anything would happen at our mall. It's a place where a lot of folks gather from inside the state, outside the state. People come to this mall. Allen has always been strong. We’ve got one high school. We're all pulling from the same rope on a Friday night when we have a game in town. But the biggest change is Allen is stronger. We had stickers going around that said ‘Allen Strong,” but today, Allen is stronger.
Are you afraid this moment will be something people remember Allen for?
Mayor: I'm not afraid that bad people do bad things. I'm not afraid that things happen out of our control. I just know that this city is stronger, more together than I could ever imagine. We're going to have an event on May 6, where we're going to come together. That's going to be a part of the healing process, the continued healing process, so we're getting there.