Eerie feeling lingers after shooting in Crete neighborhood

CRETE, Neb. (KLKN) – The Crete neighborhood where Friday's mass shooting left seven people injured remained eerie Saturday.

Ana Flores and her children live just down the street, and she said the neighborhood has never been quieter.

“You never really think that something like this could happen in an area, in this kind of area in Crete, or even in Crete as a whole,” Flores said.

Flores was at work at the time of the shooting, while her children were at home.

She said she called her son to find out if the shooting took place near their home.

“I was like, 'Angel Lock Down, there's an active shooter there.' I don't know what's going on, but I'm going home right now,” Flores said. “He looked out the window and he said, 'Mom, there are cops everywhere outside with big guns walking in the street.' At that point I panicked.

Like any mother, Flores said she was willing to do anything to reach her children, even if first responders blocked off parts of the neighborhood.

“I was ready to knock on someone’s door and say, ‘Hey, I have to take care of my kids now,’” Flores said. “But that didn’t happen, nobody stopped me and everybody let me through.”

Although Flores didn't know if it was a hate crime, it was one of his first thoughts because of the area's predominantly Hispanic population.

“We are in a country where we can express what we think and be free,” Flores said. “But I can’t understand if this is a hate crime, how did it get to this scale, especially shooting children.”

Flores said there is also a fear this could happen to another home in the neighborhood because of the number of children living in the community.

“My kids were here, and we have a lot of kids in this community,” Flores said. “There are kids in every second house, and this is not the only house that has kids.”