On March 11, 2017, Pump It Up in Mobile, Alabama, was hosting a typical birthday party for kids when chaos erupted. A gunshot was fired—there were two shooters in the building.

 

I'm Ingrid Schnader, and today, I'm speaking with two college-aged women who had a shift that day. It's April 5, and it's been almost four weeks since the shooting. Very little information has been posted to the media about the shooting. 

 

First, I spoke to Savannah Fant. Savannah was 19 years old at the time of the shooting, but now she is 20. She's a student at South Alabama, and she started working at Pump It Up about 6 months ago. 

 

Savannah: "I was on my last party of about a 12-hour shift when we were moving in from Arena B to Party Room B. I saw my manager and another employee running down the hallway trying to get everyone out, and I asked what was going on while they were running, and one of the other employees just held up her hand into a gun. I immediately went back to my room, shut the doors, and got all of my party, which was like 30 plus people, to get under the tables. I had two big men hold both doors shut the whole time, and then finally, one of my other coworkers told me that it was safe to come out.

 

"When I came out, I made sure we locked the front door because people were still trying to come in and out. So we locked the front door, and we waited on the police to show up. There was one bullet hole through our glass window, and it went through a wall to go through our break room, and then through our break room wall and it stuck in that wall. 

 

"At that time, the police came, and they tried to find it but they couldn't and they took pictures, and angles, and we had so many cameras in our building that we had cameras of the two shooters and we had information on them from the party mom that threw the party."

 

Savannah later explained to me over text message that the shooters were two parents of kids that were at one of the Pump It Up birthday parties. They had a fight, and then shots were fired. Police found at least 5 shell casings outside.

 

Next, I spoke to Ashley Dutton, who is also a 20-year-old student at South Alabama. She arrived on the scene after the police.

 

Ashley: "My shift started right after the shooting occurred. As I was pulling in, there were four cops located right in front of Pump It Up talking to one of my managers. I wasn't sure what was happening, so I walked in, and everyone seemed like they were on edge and just didn't know what to do. I walked into the break room and every employee was there talking about what had happened. And some were crying, and some were trying to figure out what they needed to do. Someone told me what happened and I just thought it was so crazy and I didn't believe it at first.

 

"Our manager was freaking out, getting phone calls left and right about if the parties are still happening and everything, which they were. Our owner came up there and tried to solve all the issues, wondering how to keep the parties going without any controversy. 

 

"The cops show up. They're asking questions to all the employees, asking what they were doing. They asked me a few questions but I was unable to tell them since I did pull up after the shooting occurred. 

 

"People were scared. The parties that were there during the shooting... they're all unhappy and trying to forget about what just occurred. And we made the night... we finished the night off and continued all the parties, which some believed that we shouldn't have. The parties were refunded, since this awful event occurred. And... [laughs] we finished the night."

 

According to Savannah, a store next to Pump It Up had video footage of the shooter's lisence plate number. This, along with the information they provided in their kids' waivers at Pump It Up, helped police find and arrest the two shooters. 

 

Thank you for listening to me, Ingrid Schnader, and my conversation with Savannah and Ashley.