A typically peaceful shopping center was the location of much commotion, involving guns, fake bombs, attempted carjacking, and an alleged murder suspect.

On Saturday, April 27 around 2:30 p.m., a man allegedly demanded money and threatened that a substance would explode in the Wells Fargo Bank in the Bon Air mall. Then, on Monday April 29, a man from Oregon allegedly held a woman at gunpoint in the same mall in an attempted carjacking, and is suspected to be the same man involved in numerous other crimes.

Many observers, including Redwood students and families, found themselves either forced to evacuate the shopping center or were able to view the arrest of a fleeing suspect in a nearby neighborhood.

Senior Rachel Heller, who was using the ATM outside of Wells Fargo just before the police arrived, said she was immediately rushed away as cops entered the bank.

“A whole bunch of cop cars pulled up with their sirens blaring and then two helicopters flew overhead,” Heller said. “All of the cops were yelling and screaming at me like, ‘Get out, get out of here right now.’”

Completely unaware of what was going on in the bank, Heller said she didn’t really notice anything out of the ordinary until a few distraught customers exited the bank just before the police arrived.

“I didn’t see anyone go into the bank – I wasn’t really noticing. I’m sure I would have noticed if someone had gone into the bank with explosives,” Heller said. “People started coming out of the bank and they were crying. I didn’t know what was happening.”

Heller said that after being rushed away from the bank so fast, it wasn’t until friends mentioned the news that she realized she’d been just outside of a bank heist and bomb threat.

“I was thinking that if I had shown up even just a couple of minutes earlier, I could have been right there when he walked into the bank,” Heller said. “It was seriously unexpected, especially at my own bank – the one bank I go to. It was weird timing. I was definitely unsettled for a little while.”

Junior Jack Bushell was just arriving home from lacrosse practice when the entrance to his street, Elizabeth Circle in Greenbrae, was blocked by dozens of cop cars. The homicide suspect and alleged attempted carjacker in Bon Air was eventually arrested on his street.

“There were about 20 cop cars blocking the entire road. All of the cops were running out of their cars,” Bushell said. “I just waited and watched. The cops basically pinned him down. Everything was kind of shielded by the cop cars, but I saw the guy get put into the car.”

Junior Adam Loo, who is a member of the Marin County Search and Rescue Team, was called in to assist in the ongoing investigation later that Monday night. They conducted a pretty standard evidence search as opposed to a human search, according to Loo.

“The exact search we performed was pretty routine and fairly linear. It’s just something we do to help out the community,” Loo said. “We ended up helping out a little bit and a lot of good came from it.”

Loo said he got lucky enough to find a piece of evidence, but was unable to further comment on the search.

Freshman Lucie Welles called in a tip to the police after she saw the suspect hiding at a nearby gas station.

Bushell said that the suspect knocked on his neighbors’ door to ask for water and that they refused to let him into their house. He said his shock came from the fact that it was so close to home but also because there seemed to be no warning.

“I think the fact that scared everyone was that it was just a blatant surprise,” Bushell said. “No one knew there was a manhunt, there really wasn’t much notice that this guy was on the loose.”

Bushell said that the two successive events, as well as the experience of witnessing the arrest, will serve as reminders for the next time he sees something strange.

“A month ago if I saw something suspicious, I wouldn’t react the same way that I would react now that this happened,” Bushell said.

Meanwhile, Heller happened to also be at Bon Air again – just after the cops had arrived and were surveying the scene on Monday. Although she missed most of the action, she said she still observed confusion from bystanders in the aftermath.

After witnessing both recent Bon Air events, Heller said that she can hardly believe it but that she continues to feel safe in Marin.

“I don’t feel unsafe just because in my 13 years of living here, nothing has happened like that,” Heller said. “It was just kind of a fluke.”