911 calls make evident chaos after shooting at Fayetteville's Cross Creek Mall

Visitors both inside and outside of Fayetteville's Cross Creek Mall called 911 in a panic Aug. 25 when shots rang out in a parking lot.

Recordings of the calls were released Monday to WRAL News, and they make clear the callers' confusion and fear.

One of the first calls came in at 7:02 p.m. The caller was crying, saying, "Ma'am, they're shooting. They're shooting ma'am. They're shooting."

Police said several cars were hit by gunfire that night but no one was injured. A spokesperson for Cross Creek Mall said it appeared there was a fight inside the mall that escalated in the parking lot.

A minute after the first call, another person told dispatchers, "We heard it. We couldn’t see it. We walked into the mall, and several women notified us that we needed to get out because one of them had seen a man with a gun. We turned right back around went back to the car and as we were getting in our vehicle, we heard shots fired."

Jahrehl Malloy, 21, and Nyhgil Kirk, 24, were each charged with attempted first-degree murder and other charges and were held on $1 million secured bonds.

Police said the two men fired at another man as the target left the food court then tried to leave the mall in a car before their arrests.

Mall employees and shoppers hunkered down inside waiting for the all clear. Dispatchers heard from people inside the Lids and Journey's stores. One said, "We have, like, four kids in our store, in our store in the back room."

Another caller wondered whether it was safe to leave.

"The employees are saying we got to leave. We’re locked in the back room," the caller said. "I got a buggy full of stuff. What am I gonna do?"

Debbie Basile was at the mall with her two grandchildren when the shooting happened. She said when she first arrived she heard fighting.

"We walked on in through the glass doors at the food court, and by the time the doors shut behind us, they unloaded. I wasn't counting, but there had to be 15 or more rounds firing," said Basile.

"They opened fire, and I mean bullets, they were hitting the glass. They were loud. There were, you know, pow, pow, pow ... nonstop and everyone took off running."

Gwen Bell, a manager at Saslow's Diamond Jewelers, said people were running through the mall yelling 'Guns.'

"I've never seen people run that fast," said Bell. "We put [our store's] gates down to secure ourselves and some people went into their back rooms."

Meanwhile, Layla Simms said she was working in the food court when the shooting happened.

"I was just doing my job, and I see people running and screaming and my manager yells, 'Get down. They're shooting,' and I hear gunshots," said Simms. "There were workers in the back as well screaming, 'Call 911. They're shooting.'"