Across from the still-closed complex, a large number of mourners continued to leave flowers on Monday, adding to a large pile that had grown across multiple storefronts. Many of the visitors were groups of women – mothers and daughters holding hands, friends wiping each other's tears, women seemingly holding their baby daughters just a little tighter.
Mrs. Aravanopoulos and her daughter Alexia Costa were among those who left flowers. They went back to retrieve their car, which had been inaccessible in the locked-down mall since Saturday.
Mrs. Aravanopoulos, 55, said she felt especially guilty about being in danger on Saturday because she had insisted the couple go shopping that afternoon to choose a dress for an upcoming 21st birthday. of her daughter. As a woman working in the male-dominated construction field, she raised her daughters to never back down and to always stand up for themselves, she said.
“They think women won't fight back,” she said.
Convinced that the attacker was targeting women, she shuddered to think what would have happened if the young female store managers had not acted quickly and pulled down the shutters.
“It was an all-women store and the managers were our heroes,” she recalls.
Simone Scoppa, 42, who was also at the memorial on Monday, said the stabbing was just the latest incident targeting women that has left her looking over her shoulder while walking her dog at night, even in her suburban neighborhood and had to hold the keys to the house. her hands as a defensive weapon just in case.
Seeing the mall as the site of the attack also made women feel vulnerable, she said.
“Where do a lot of women go on a Saturday afternoon?” Ms. Scoppa said. “You see fathers and husbands sitting on the couch tending to bags and mothers breastfeeding.”
yen Trang Report contributions.
