Westgate film shows heroism and chaos among rescuers

Contractors remove debris at Westgate Mall on January 21, 2014. PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE |

Viewers of the documentary film Terror in the Mall being shown on US television on Monday night will see examples of death-defying courage on the part of a few police officers and civilians.

They helped rescue scores of people trapped inside the Westgate Mall in Nairobi.

“I was not thinking that I could die, that I could get shot,” police officer Nura Ali says in the film. “I felt invincible.”

A small group of plainclothes police officers and civilian volunteers engaged in a shootout with the Al-Shabaab attackers at the front entrance to Nakumatt, the documentary relates.

That battle enabled more than 100 besieged mall patrons to escape.

But Kenyan Army soldiers and a special weapons and tactics (SWAT) police team were slow in responding to the terrorist onslaught, the film indicates.

These forces did not arrive on the scene for almost an hour after the attack began and did not enter the mall for another two hours, according to a synopsis of the film airing on the HBO network.

WAITING FOR HELP

Victims who had fled to Westgate's rooftop lay bleeding as they waited for help to arrive.

“We laid there for a very long time,” Jasmine Postwalla, who was trapped on the upper level, says in an interview. “You would expect to see a lot of armed soldiers and all coming up the ramp. Maybe that was what we were expecting, but that didn't happen.”

Kenyan soldiers and members of the police SWAT team are described as “confused and lacking a comprehensive plan.”

These would-be rescuers mistakenly fired at one another inside the mall, killing one police officer.

Both the SWAT unit and the army troops left Westgate 90 minutes after entering the mall.

“Meanwhile,” the synopsis recounts, “the terrorists relaxed at the back of Nakumatt's furniture storeroom, praying and waiting to be attacked by Kenyan forces.”

Subsequent battles with Al-Shabaab assailants killed five Kenyan soldiers, reports the documentary by British filmmaker Dan Reed.

The film reports that the standoff finally ended after the army fired a high-explosive shell into Nakumatt that incinerated all four terrorists.

Terror in the Mall also shows how differences in race, class and tribe were erased among those under attack.

“We don’t know each other,” says Valentine Kadzo, who hid for hours with others in a small display area.

“We all come from different communities, but at that time we were one. I’ll always treasure that moment because everyone was caring about the other.”