APEX - The morning of May 30, in many ways, began in standard fashion for Jackie Bunch and her employees at Lowes No. 1878 in the Beaver Creek Commons shopping center.

There were exceptions in the early risers rushing to finish home projects during the Memorial Day weekend.

But neither Bunch nor her staff could have imagined what would happen next: the early morning rush that day would quickly be overshadowed by a stream of panicked shoppers fleeing for their lives.

"It was chaos," said Bunch, who recently became the second person ever to receive a Citizens Medal from the Apex police department.

The award is the highest honor that can be bestowed upon a civilian by the chief of police.

Chief Jack Lewis said the Citizens Medal, an award initiated only four years ago, recognizes "someone who does something well above what would be expected to advance the mission of the department."

Bunch owes her moment in the spotlight to the tragic circumstances that unfolded that Sunday morning at a neighboring Target store.

Hundreds of shoppers fled that store in the moments after a lone gunman entered Target and opened fire on an employee.

The employee, Guadalupe Rosas, 58, died of multiple gunshot wounds.

Her attacker and former boyfriend, Mervin Carroll Mims, 67, then turned the gun on himself.

Bunch recalled the moment that news of the shooting spread to Lowes.

"My first thought was fear for the safety of our customers and employees," said Bunch, a former regional manager for Lowes and store manager at the Apex location for the past year.

"The first thing you think about is protecting everything around you," she added. "The information that morning, at first, was so sparse.

"We knew there had been a shooting and that one person was down. Our concern at that point was to get as many people off the street as we could and locked in the safe confines of our store."

In the wake of the shooting, Bunch ordered her store closed.

Her staff locked Lowes' front doors and took up posts at other entrances to welcome those seeking refuge from the chaos outside.

Employees set up what Bunch called a "calming area" at the rear of the store, where frightened shoppers could rest on patio furniture and vent their emotions with other victims.

Community support

Lewis, the police chief, said the store's efforts to not only accommodate but cater to the needs of his staff and the victims of the Target incident showed "an incredible level of community support."

He said as much in a letter penned to Robert Niblock, chief executive of Lowes, following the May 30 shooting.

"One thing I put in there was that I thought that one of the things that has a measurable effect on how a community heals is the immediacy of compassion and concern shown to victims," he said.

"I don't know that a business could have done any more than Lowes did," he added.

Lewis said Lowes also provided space for police to interview 90 of the 107 shoppers who relayed their experience to investigators.

"I think that's an attitude of community that was truly amazing," he said.

But while Lewis had plenty of praise for the company and the staff of the Apex store as a whole, he said Bunch displayed exceptional leadership.

"When I talked with her in the middle of the afternoon that day, I said, 'I would like to enable you to get your store back open for business,' " Lewis said. "It was a busy weekend, and here they've closed their store.

"She said, 'That would be OK, but we need to help you more than we need to open the store," Lewis noted. "I just find that to be, after being in the police business for quite a few years now, just a remarkable spirit of community involvement."

Bunch said she was humbled, even a little embarrassed, to have received the Citizens Medal.

Lewis presented her with the award during the Apex police department's annual awards banquet.

The event was held this year at the Halle Cultural Arts Center on June 16.

"Being in management for a while, you train yourself to be very calm and to assess the situation," Bunch said. "You have to check your personal emotions at the door so you can keep your head clear about what's going on.

"I felt like we just responded to the situation," she added. "It was a team effort. What we did was ordinary, not extraordinary.

"Everyone knew what they needed to do and they just did it."