KANSAS CITY, Mo — It has been one week since a mass shooting at Crown Center injured six people.
When people think of Crown Center, ice skating, shopping and eating come to mind.
It's a family-friendly spot that's been a staple of Kansas City for more than 50 years.
On Wednesday afternoon, there was a noticeable security presence various employees told KSHB 41 they're used to seeing.
Many business owners shared they are having to adjust to slower business than usual.
"My house doesn’t have any income right now because of this," said Andrea Penaloza, owner of Empanada Madness.
Penaloza said they closed minutes before the shooting happened, but the store was in the line of fire.
"I don't know if anyone had as much damage as we did," she said "Our POS broke. Our TV's, our glass for windows that keeps us private from other restaurants was shattered."
Some of Empanada Madness is still boarded up, but it's not the look of the boards that have caused as much as a 50% drop in sales.
"I'm doing Amazon Flex right now to adjust because we just don't have any sales at the moment," Penaloza said.
An employee at a different store, who did not want to be identified, said this is a slow time of year for businesses, but usually not this slow.
"We took a massive, probably 30% sales decrease, compared to what we usually do," the employee said.
Several businesses said there wasn't much communication about the shooting from Crown Center management until Wednesday morning.
"They can’t even send an email until four hours later, (after the shooting), then no further contact after a major incident. It’s frustrating," employees told KSHB 41.
While they hope for a normal week of business to come soon, they’re also taking what happened as a learning experience.
"We’re going to hopefully train at all of our stores in case something happens at a different restaurant so they know what to do," an employee said.
Everyone agreed they’re hoping people keep coming in.
"Help support our small businesses because our families need you guys," Penaloza said.
KCPD said detectives are still working on gathering enough evidence to present to the prosecutor's office for potential charges.
Crown Center management would not confirm whether they've had any changes in security, but they said they've started showing up in person to communicate with businesses about the situation.
They released a statement that's on their website.
We are saddened by the events of Wednesday night, and our hearts go out to everyone impacted by this event – our Crown Center merchants, employees and visitors. We want to acknowledge and thank the first responders for their quick response and actions to contain and clear the scene in such a professional manner.
