Allen Outlets shooting: Father recalls protecting daughter as shooting erupted
ALLEN, Texas - There are hundreds of people who were at the Allen Premium Outlets Saturday who made it out alive but scarred.
Families were running from the gunfire, hiding to protect their children.
Geoffrey Keaton says his first instinct was to protect his daughter when the gunfire rang out. He says those first few minutes were frantic and uncertain.
"From the time that we learned there was a shooter, the first thing I did was just to make sure that my baby girl was secure. She's 16," he said.
Keaton was with his 16-year-old daughter eating at Fatburger across the parking lot where the shooting occurred when the shots rang out.
"People running and screaming outside. Where I was, screaming outside it was pretty horrific in the sense. As moments went past, shots got louder and to me the shots were closer," he recalled. "The manager of Fatburger decided to all let us come in the back. So we all ran in the back. And once we get into the back the core area, all the doors were sealed off."
It was there he sheltered in place with other customers, waiting and praying to get out alive. His main priority was protecting his daughter, Annika.
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"Where we were sitting at inside of the restaurant, there was a metal counter directly to my left," Keaton recalled. "I kind of just shielded her off under the counter and was trying to be vigilant. You could clearly hear shots."
Vigilant amid the fear and confusion, Keaton described the nightmare he and his daughter were in. They tried to escape through the Sunglass Hut next door to the Fatburger, but they were met by Allen police officers. The officers ordered they put their hands up and lay on the ground.
"I laid on top of my daughter to see what was going on. To my left, you could see someone was down. He had on full tactical gear with a side firearm automatic weapon on his right side. You could see his shoes. He had on Chuck Taylors, which let me know that he was not a police officer," he recalled. "I looked back down to the right of us down the sidewalk. There were bodies all over. People shot, leaned up against store windows, trying to hold it together. Some that were not living. I just prayed."
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Keaton said he feels like he did everything he could do.
"We're here to love and build upon love," he said. "I feel like with that the world would be better. Because right now, it's looking bleak for us all."
Even though bleak, he’s still got hope.
Keaton says it's family and faith that's keeping him strong and says he's baffled by the amount of hatred that we often overlook until it's right at our doorstep.