Sixteen-year-old Bronwynn Cruden’s family runs an escape room so she’s well-versed in the art of finding an exit. But last Halloween, her skills were critically important and might have helped save lives.

Cruden was doing homework at the front counter of Twisted Escape Rooms in the Vancouver Mall when she heard gunshots ringing out. Cruden said, “I heard ‘boom, boom.’ I didn’t process the first few shots because it sounded so loud and abrupt. Then it was like one after another after another.” Looking up, Cruden saw panicked families running through the mall.

Her first thought was to help those outside her business, so she unlocked the doors and ushered families inside, including a man holding a crying baby. She guided them to a back door for safety. Then, remembering the group of six people participating in an escape room game, she went back to alert them. “I didn’t know if they heard the shots or thought it was something else,” she explained.

Meanwhile, Cruden’s stepmother Wendy, who was out of town, was alerted to the situation through a motion detection notification on her phone. “When I saw that, I was just shaking,” said Wendy, who immediately called her daughter. “And of course, I’m just trying to keep her calm, too." Wendy instructed Cruden to lock herself in the back bathroom with the family’s two dogs and wait for help to arrive.

Cruden stayed in the bathroom, listening to sirens and police in the hallway, until a friend of her father arrived. She then learned that one person had died and two others had been injured in the shooting.

Recalling the chaotic scene, Cruden said, "I watched hundreds of parents running and picking up kids. It was the most people I’ve ever seen in that mall, and more kids than adults or teenagers. I’m mostly sad for the people, for the kids."

Wendy, reflecting on her stepdaughter's actions that night, said, "She did the right thing. She was very brave, and I felt like I was watching a hero when I saw the video.”