Sisters recall frightening moments during TJ Maxx shooting, worry about mental health of others who were there

QUINCY — Janet Hultgren was shopping for purses, and her sister Lisa Demzik looked for rings while visiting TJ Maxx on Saturday afternoon in the Prairie Crossing Shopping Center.

“We were doing our thing and having a good time,” Hultgren said.

Then they heard a scream that Hultgren described as one she’ll never forget.

“I mean, it was horrific,” she said. “I’m going to call it a blood-curdling scream.”

Hultgren, a licensed clinical social worker for Mark Twain Behavioral Health in Hannibal, Mo., said she started moving toward the sound of the scream. 

“The next thing I heard is this person saying, ‘There’s a shooter! There’s a shooter!’” Hultgren said. “Well, then everybody started scrambling around in every which direction, screaming and stuff.”

“Some girl ran in and just screamed at the top of her lungs,” said Demzik, who lives in Chesterfield. “I didn’t know if (the shooter) had an assault rifle. We had no clue. With all the things going on in the world today, your mind kind of just says, ‘Let’s get the heck out of here.’”

Officers from the Quincy Police Department, Adams County Sheriff’s Department and the Illinois State Police were dispatched at 2:28 p.m. Saturday, July 6, to 6210 Broadway to a shooting incident in the parking lot in front of TJ Maxx. Terrence Horton, 22, was found on the ground with apparent gunshot wounds.

Alan Pacheco, 21, was taken into custody a short time later after returning to the scene. During a hearing Tuesday, July 9, in Adams County Circuit Court, Assistant State’s Attorney Todd Eyler said he had video evidence showing Pacheco with a 9mm handgun in his hand, following one of the victims who ran inside a nearby Petco store. 

“You see him holding the gun that further puts anybody in that store or in that area in danger,” Eyler said, “You had TJ Maxx go on lockdown and lock their doors. There were people inside that store. There were people inside of every store there. There were people in their cars. There’s a video that exists of individuals who took a video as they pulled up and were getting out of their car as this very thing happened. 

“To say that other individuals, besides the two specific ones who are named, were in danger and put at risk is an understatement.”

Hultgren and Demzik said they believed about 100 people — including several children — were at TJ Maxx on Saturday when shots were fired. Demzik first ran into a dressing room and immediately decided it was a bad idea.

“There was a young couple with a brand new baby, and the look on their faces was horrifying,” she said.

The sisters eventually connected by phone and raced out a delivery door at the south end of the store, across a parking lot and into an area of overgrown grass and brush. They went about 20 yards down an embankment and stayed underneath branches of a tree.

“It was like a thicket,” Hultgren said. “There were so many thorn bushes and sticker bushes, but we crawled in there and hid there. It wasn’t a fun experience back there, but it was better than the alternative.”

The sisters learned about 45 minutes later that the shooter had been apprehended. When they learned it was OK to climb back up the embankment, they were greeted by several Quincy Police and Illinois State Police officers. Hultgren was bleeding after receiving cuts from the bushes.

“They asked me if I needed to go to the emergency room, and I said, ‘No, my physical injuries are OK,’” she said. “It’s just that my emotional health wasn’t so great, and that’s the part about all of this that was overlooked.”

Several other stores were locked down moments after the shooting, and hundreds of people were in the shopping center. Kris Whitehead, an emergency room enhancement clinician at Mark Twain Behavioral Health, says anyone present that afternoon could be affected by what they saw and heard.

“Signs and symptoms of acute stress disorder can happen,” she said. “They could have an intrusive recollection of the events, such as flashbacks, nightmares or problems sleeping. It could be they don’t want to eat like normal. They don’t feel hungry. It could be hyper vigilance, irritability, anger, outbursts, exaggerated startle response, difficulty concentrating, things like that.

“Dissociation often gets a more harsh term than usual, but it’s basically where you’re just kind of present somewhere physically, but mentally you’re reliving these events of that day as opposed to where you’re mentally present with the people who you’re around.”

Whitehead said people who suffer from acute stress disorder might also have nausea, avoid people, avoid trips to the store or just not want to leave the house. The disorder often lasts as long as a month.

“If it goes beyond that, we’re typically looking at post-traumatic stress disorder,” she said.

Small children suffering from acute stress disorder could have similar symptoms, but Whitehead says they struggle to put words to it.

“They don’t really understand what’s happening,” she said. “A kid might not be cooperative very well, they’re angry, irritable, throwing things, slamming doors. They’re clingy or they’re not wanting to leave your side as a parent. They might be sitting there in a room and you’re talking to them, it seems like they’re ignoring you when they’re dissociating in their mind.”

Whitehead adults often choose to meet with a therapist immediately after a critical incident and encourages those who don’t to write down their story. She suggests giving kids plenty of extra attention.

“Let’s help them put words to it,” she said. “Let’s listen to them. Let them tell their story. Have them write it out. Interact the events with them through play. That’s how they heal from traumas. You’re able to help kind of guide them and coach them if need be. They need lots of empathy, validation, active listening and understanding that their behaviors are a result of this critical incident and not them just not listening to you very well.”

Hultgren and Demzik dealt with their own trauma by staying at Hultgren’s home on Sunday.

“We weren’t able to go out of the house,” Hultgren said. “I had this overwhelming feeling of being emotionally exhausted. We were both not wanting to go around people and do that kind of thing. We reminisced how it must have been for the children who were in that situation and, for the first time, saw something that’s horrific. That’s a mental health issue that’s very important to me.”

Demzik remembered how her daughter reacted when the family car was broken into years ago.

“Suddenly, the boogeyman was everywhere and going to get her,” she said. “So I’m telling people (who had kids near the shooting) not to wait. For any of those little kids who were running around and screaming, their parents have resources that they can access to help them.”