HUMBLE, Tx \u2013 A back-to-school shopping trip turned into a terrifying run for safety for one Houston-area family after gunfire erupted inside Deerbrook Mall Saturday evening.<\/p>\n
Angela Arriaga said she and her family were trying on shoes at Journeys when they heard the first gunshot.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt first, I thought something fell on the ground because I was trying to stay calm before I panicked,\u201d Arriaga said. \u201cThen when I saw everybody running, that\u2019s when I panicked and grabbed the girls, and we all ran to the back.\u201d<\/p>\n
The family heard a total of four gunshots and ran toward an emergency exit. In the chaos, Arriaga said they were briefly separated from her husband, who remained near the front of the store to help others get to safety and close the store\u2019s gate.<\/p>\n
Arriaga refused to leave through the emergency exit until her husband caught up with them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was scared that he was shooting just anyone,\u201d she said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t know if it was a targeted person. That was the most frightening part.\u201d<\/p>\n
Humble Police and Harris County Sheriff\u2019s Office deputies responded to the mall at approximately 6:30 p.m. Authorities said a juvenile was shot and taken to a hospital. Another juvenile, identified by authorities as the suspected shooter, was taken into custody.<\/p>\n
One of Arriaga\u2019s daughters, Alina, had taken off her Crocs and was trying on a new pair of shoes when the shooting started.<\/p>\n
She escaped the mall wearing only one of the store\u2019s shoes, leaving behind her own shoes, purse and necklace.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never actually been through those types of things before, and I don\u2019t want to do it again,\u201d Alina said. \u201cI just wanted to go get some shoes, and then we heard that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Angela later shared the family\u2019s experience on social media, including a photograph showing her daughter outside the mall with only one shoe.<\/p>\n
The post caught the attention of local community advocate Andrew Zamarripas.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis story really got to me,\u201d Zamarripas said. \u201cI really wanted to reach out to the family and see what I could do because I know it\u2019s back to school, and the parents are working as hard as they can.\u201d<\/p>\n
A happier return to the mall<\/p>\n
Zamarripas brought the family back to the mall Sunday and purchased new shoes for two of Arriaga\u2019s daughters and her granddaughter. He also gave the girls shirts from his clothing brand.<\/p>\n
The girls walked away wearing their new shoes\u2014this time, leaving the mall with smiles on their faces.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt very grateful, and I\u2019m glad that I got the shoes I\u2019ve been wanting,\u201d one of the girls said.<\/p>\n
Arriaga said the family plans to repay Zamarripas\u2019 kindness by performing good deeds for others.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to pay it back with our good deeds,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
For Alina, the new shoes were a welcome surprise following a frightening experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really grateful that none of us got hurt,\u201d she said. \u201cI hope the people who did get hurt get better.\u201d<\/p>\n
The investigation into the shooting remains ongoing.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HUMBLE, Tx \u2013 A back-to-school shopping trip turned into a terrifying run for safety for one Houston-area family…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387375,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[43474,56,58,57,136529,136528,2360,37241],"class_list":["post-387374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-back-to-school","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-humble-police-response","tag-mall-safety","tag-school","tag-supplies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}