Shooting
Tennessee grocery store attack: 'He kept on shooting'
A gunman attacked a grocery store in an upscale Tennessee suburb on Thursday afternoon, killing one person and wounding 12 others before he was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound at the store, authorities said.
Collierville Police Chief Dale Lane said the shooting broke out at a Kroger grocery in Collierville, a suburban community 30 miles (50 kilometers) east of Memphis. He said the gunman shot 13 others and himself, and that 12 of the victims were taken to hospitals, some with very serious injuries.
Kroger worker Brignetta Dickerson told WREG-TV she was working a cash register when she heard what at first she thought were balloons popping.
“And, here he comes right behind us and started shooting,” Dickerson said. “And, he kept on shooting, shooting, shooting. He shot one of my co-workers in the head and shot one of my customers in the stomach.”
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Lane said police received a call about 1:30 p.m. about the shooting and arrived almost immediately, finding multiple people with gunshot wounds upon entering the building.
He said a police SWAT team and other officers went aisle to aisle plucking panicked people from hiding and taking them out safely. He said the shooter, whom he described as male, was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot.
“We found people hiding in freezers, in locked offices. They were doing what they had been trained to do: run, hide, fight," the chief said.
The identities of the shooter and the victims were not immediately released. Lane declined to reveal more about the suspect at a news briefing Thursday evening, citing the ongoing investigation and search warrants that will be carried out.
“We're going to carry this thing as far as we can to see and make sure that there's no else involved,” Lane said, adding that there was “no credible evidence” that there was a second shooter.
The chief also said that, “As far as we know there wasn’t any other incident that led up to this.”
Dickerson, the employee, said her co-worker, who is in his 20s, was shot in the head and asked for his mother to be notified.
“I left her a voicemail that he was alert and talking,” Dickerson said, unable to immediately reach her.
Another employee, Glenda McDonald, described the chaotic scene to WHBQ-TV.
“I was walking back towards the floral department and I heard a gunshot,” she said. “It sounded like it was coming from the deli. And I ran out the front door and they had already shot the front door.”
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Jason Lusk, 39, had just left a tool store beside Kroger when he heard some women screaming in the parking lot about a shooter. He didn't see the gunman, but heard 10 to 15 rounds in rapid succession at the grocery store.
“It sounded like they were directly over my head," he said, adding he could feel the concussion of every shot and knew the weapon was powerful. Even at a distance of some 40 yards, he said, he worried that he and others around him were in grave danger.
“As the firing started, I dove in front of my vehicle onto the ground to provide the most cover for myself and instructed the people around me panicking, trying to get into the cars, not to get in their cars, but to actually hide," he said.
Then police arrived within minutes and “they swarmed that place," Lusk said. He added that he used his phone to record at least two of the gunman's final shots, and then a final gunshot on his last recording of the SWAT team on the scene.
At a new briefing afterward, the police chief Lane called it a sad day for his department.
“I've been involved in this for 34 years and I’ve never seen anything like it," he said.
The suspect’s vehicle was in the store’s parking lot and remained part of the investigation, the chief said, adding investigators were trying to determine how events unfolded.
“Let’s get through the investigation,” Lane said. "Remember, we’re two hours away from the most horrific event that’s occurred in Collierville history.”
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Collierville is a growing suburb of more than 51,000 people with a median household income of about $114,000, according to U.S. census figures. Set in a rural and historic area, the town square has largely become known for its boutiques and bed and breakfasts.
Earlier this year, Tennessee became the latest state to allow most adults 21 and older to carry handguns without first clearing a state-level background check and training. The measure was signed into law by Republican Gov. Bill Lee over objections from some law enforcement groups and gun control advocates concerned the measure would possibly lead to more gun violence.
The Kroger Co., based in Cincinnati, Ohio, issued a statement that it was "deeply saddened" by the shooting and was cooperating with law enforcement. The company in 2019 asked its customers not to openly carry guns while visiting its stores.
A Kroger spokesperson said the Collierville store will be closed until further notice.
Lights were still on in the store after nightfall, chrysanthemums set out front. The parking lot, entirely roped off with police tape, was still full of cars, with a heavy police presence. Neighboring businesses, including a fast food restaurant and an auto parts store, were closed.
Shooting in Russian university leaves 8 dead
A gunman opened fire in a university in the Russian city of Perm on Monday morning, leaving eight people dead and others wounded, according to Russia’s Investigative Committee.
The gunman has been detained, the Interior Ministry said.
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The Perm State University press service said the perpetrator used a so-called “traumatic” firearm; such guns are designed to fire non-lethal rubber or plastic projectiles, but can be modified to fire other ammunition.
Students and staff of the university locked themselves in rooms, and the university urged those who could leave the campus to do so. The state Tass news agency cited an unnamed source in the law enforcement as saying that some students jumped out of the windows of a building.
The number of wounded was uncertain — reports varied from six to 14 and it was not clear if any of those were injuries from jumping from the building.
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Perm is about 1,100 kilometers (700 miles) east of Moscow, with a population of about 1 million. The university enrolls some 12,000 students.
There was no immediate information on the gunman's identity or possible motivation.
In May, a gunman opened fire at a school in the city of Kazan, killing seven students and two teachers.
Bangladeshi man found dead at Kurigram border, police suspect BSF shooting
A Bangladeshi man was found dead early hours of Saturday at Datvanga border in Rowmari upazila of Kurigram and a local police official suspected that he might have been killed by Indian Border Security Force.
The deceased, identified as Sahibor Rahman,40, hailed from Kauniar Char village along the border.
Assistant constable of Kurigram-35 BGB GS branch in Jamalpur, Mukit said around 12 am a BGB patrol team heard three to four rounds of bullet fired near international pillar number 1054. The patrol found none when it reached the spot.
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Around 1 am locals informed BGB a villager named Sahibor had gone towards the border and he died there. Police at Roumari were informed of the incident, he said.
Until now BSF didn’t confirm any firing at the border, said the BGB constable.
According to locals Sahibor was shot by Dwipchar camp BSF members while he was seen with cows close to the border. Later villagers brought his body to his home.
Datvanga Border Outpost commander Joyen Uddin said we informed the police after a man was reported shot dead at his home.
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Rowmari police station’s officer-in-charge, Montasir Billah said they are suspecting Sahibor was shot by BSF members.
A team was sent to recover the body from his home, he said.
Mass shooting leaves 6 dead in UK's Plymouth
Six people, including the suspect, were killed in a shooting Thursday evening in the UK's Plymouth, a port city in Devon in southwest England.
Devon and Cornwall Police tweeted that the law enforcers were called to a "serious firearms incident" in the Keyham area of Plymouth.
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"Following attendance at the scene, two females and two males were deceased at the scene. A further male, believed to be the offender, was also deceased at the scene. All are believed to have died from gunshot wounds," it said.
Another female, treated at the scene for gunshot wounds, died a short time later in hospital, it added, noting that the shooting was not terrorism-related.
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Luke Pollard, member of parliament for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport, tweeted that one of the people killed in the shooting was a child under 10 years old.
"The incident in Plymouth is shocking, and my thoughts are with those affected," British Home Secretary Priti Patel tweeted earlier.
8 dead in shooting at rail yard serving Silicon Valley
An employee opened fire Wednesday at a California rail yard serving Silicon Valley, killing eight people before ending his own life, authorities said.
The suspect was an employee of the Valley Transportation Authority, which provides bus, light rail and other transit services throughout Santa Clara County, the largest county in the Bay Area, authorities said.
The attacker was identified as 57-year-old Sam Cassidy, according to two law enforcement officials. Investigators offered no immediate word on a possible motive.
The shooting took place around 6:30 a.m. at a light rail facility that includes a transit-control center, parking for trains and a maintenance yard.
Sheriff’s spokesman Deputy Russell Davis said the attack also resulted in “multiple major injuries.” He did not know the type of weapon used. He said the victims included VTA employees. Authorities did not release any of the victims’ names.
“These folks were heroes during COVID-19. The buses never stopped running, VTA didn’t stop running. They just kept at work, and now we’re really calling on them to be heroes a second time to survive such a terrible, terrible tragedy,” Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez.
Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen said it was his understanding the shooting happened inside the VTA building.
Victims’ grief-stricken families sat huddled together, holding hands and crying, after learning they had lost a loved one, Rosen told reporters, describing the scene inside a county building.
“They’re just sitting and holding hands and crying,” Rosen said. “It’s terrible. It’s awful. It’s raw. People are learning they lost their husband, their son, their brother.” He said about 100 people were inside the family reunification center.
Police vehicles and orange crime-scene tape blocked off the area, and reporters were kept at a distance The rail yard is in the city’s administrative neighborhood, near the sheriff’s office and city and county offices.
Bomb squads were searching the rail complex after receiving information about possible explosive devices inside the building, Davis said.
Officials were also investigating a house fire that broke out shortly before the shooting, Davis said. Public records show Cassidy owned a two-story home where firefighters responded Wednesday morning.
VTA trains were already out on morning runs when the shooting occurred. Light rail service was to be suspended at noon and replaced with bus bridges, agency Chairman Glenn Hendricks told a news conference.
“It’s just very difficult for everyone to be able try to wrap their heads around and understand what has happened,” Hendricks said.
Outside the scene, Michael Hawkins told The Mercury News that he was waiting for his mother, Rochelle Hawkins, who had called him from a co-worker’s phone to assure him that she was safe.
When the shooting started, “she got down with the rest of her coworkers” and dropped her cellphone, Michael Hawkins told the newspaper. Rochelle Hawkins did not see the shooter, and she was not sure how close she had been to the attacker, her son said.
San Jose, the 10th-largest city in the U.S. with more than a million people, is about 50 miles south of San Francisco in the heart of Silicon Valley.
In the city itself, the most recent mass shooting occurred in 2019 at a private home, according to The Mercury News, in what police said was a quadruple murder and suicide precipitated by family conflict.
Wednesday’s attack was the county’s second shooting in less than two years. A gunman killed three people before killing himself at a popular garlic festival in Gilroy in July 2019.
At a news conference, San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo lamented the “horrific day for our city.” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a tweet that his office was “in close contact with local law enforcement and monitoring this situation closely.”
Agents from the FBI and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were responding to the crime scene, officials said.
Police: 9 wounded in Providence, Rhode Island, shooting
Nine people were wounded Thursday evening in Rhode Island’s capital in what police there believe to be the largest shooting in city history.
Of the nine, three had serious injuries and were “maybe critical,” Providence Police Chief Col. Hugh T. Clements told reporters at the scene.
He said multiple guns were used and it involved an “ongoing feud” involving two groups known to authorities. He said the shooting began with gunfire emanating from a vehicle, targeting a home. A person or people inside the home then returned fire. He described the participants as “young men.”
The shooting took place just before 7 p.m. in the southeastern neighborhood of Washington Park, which Clements described as a typically quiet neighborhood.
Clements said an estimated several dozen shots were fired. Evidence markers showing where more than a dozen shell casings littered the ground could be seen in the distance. Police sealed off the area.
No arrests have been made. Clements stressed the investigation was in its early stages. Detectives were at the hospital interviewing the victims, who are between the ages of 19 and 25. Further details about their identities were not released.
He said police have made strides to get guns off the streets and thus called the shooting “very disappointing.” The suspects and the victims “might be one and the same,” he said, without providing further details.
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“There’ll be names you may recognize; we certainly know from police work,” Clements told reporters.
Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza also addressed media at the scene, fielding questions in both English and Spanish.
“I’ve spoken with a number of the neighbors, and everyone is shaken,” he said, adding that he’s promised extra patrols and security in the neighborhood for the coming days.
Prior to this shooting, Providence had seen 19 gunshot victims and seven homicide victims by gunfire in 2021, Clements said.
Elorza also exhorted city residents to stop using gun violence to settle feuds, and criticized the ready availability of guns.
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“This has to stop,” Elorza said. “The young people involved, believing that the way to solve their disputes is with a handgun — I mean, that can’t be the way.”
Man kills 6, then self, at Colorado birthday party shooting
A gunman opened fire at a birthday party in Colorado, slaying six adults before killing himself Sunday, police said.
The shooting happened just after midnight in a mobile home park on the east side of Colorado Springs, police said.
Officers arrived at a trailer to find six dead adults and a man with serious injuries who died later at a hospital, the Colorado Springs Gazette reported.
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The suspected shooter was the boyfriend of a female victim at the party attended by friends, family and children. He walked inside and opened fire before shooting himself, police said.
The birthday party was for one of the people killed, police said.
Neighbor Yenifer Reyes told The Denver Post she woke to the sound of many gunshots.
“I thought it was a thunderstorm,” Reyes said. “Then I started hearing sirens.”
Police brought children out of the trailer and put them into at least one patrol car, she said, adding that the children were “crying hysterically.”
Authorities say the children, who weren’t hurt in the attack, have been placed with relatives.
Police on Sunday hadn’t released the identities of the shooter or victims. Authorities say a motive wasn’t immediately known.
“My heart breaks for the families who have lost someone they love and for the children who have lost their parents,” Colorado Springs Police Chief Vince Niski said in a statement.
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It was Colorado’s worst mass shooting since a gunman killed 10 people at a Boulder supermarket March 22.
“The tragic shooting in Colorado Springs is devastating,” Gov. Jared Polis said Sunday, “especially as many of us are spending the day celebrating the women in our lives who have made us the people we are today.”
Colorado Springs, population 465,000, is Colorado’s second-biggest city after Denver.
In 2015, a man shot three people to death at random before dying in a shootout with police in Colorado Springs on Halloween. Less than a month later, a man killed three people, including a police officer, and injured eight others in a shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic in the city.
Chicago video tests newsroom handling of graphic footage
The image that many Americans have of 13-year-old Adam Toledo is frozen in time: He is standing in an alley with his hands up as the gunshot that killed him is heard.
This week’s release of Chicago body camera footage of the March 29 shooting was another test for news organizations weighing how much graphic material they should show now that video of police confrontations is becoming commonplace.
One Chicago digital site offered its subscribers a choice to read the story with or without the video.
National television outlets took similar approaches. They showed jumpy body camera footage of officer Eric Stillman chasing Toledo and ordering him to drop a gun, followed by Toledo’s empty hands being raised. The video is stopped at the moment of the fatal shot.
In some depictions, like on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360,” a second video angle from a distance shows Toledo crumpling to the ground. Some outlets also aired brief scenes of Stillman trying to revive the teen.
“The news media has gotten much better at stopping the frame before someone’s last moment,” said Allissa Richardson, professor at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California. “It’s finally starting to sink in that we can tell these stories without the final moment of impact.”
Said “CBS This Morning” anchor Gayle King: “I don’t want to see him get shot.”
Television executives recognize they have a responsibility to protect viewers from excessively disturbing footage, said Mark Whitaker, a former CNN and NBC News executive. They also recognize that most consumers, if they want to see more of the confrontation, have other options online.
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The video was the lead story Friday on the Chicago Tribune’s website, with a headline warning of graphic content. With two clicks, visitors could see video of the entire confrontation and its gory aftermath.
Block Club Chicago, a subscription-based site for local news, let customers choose to read about Toledo without access to the video or to read a second story where, with a few clicks, they could see an edited portion that ends with Toledo falling to the ground.
“People have different news needs,” said Jen Sabella, co-founder and director of strategy for Block Club Chicago. “Some people are happy to read a story and move on with their day, and some people want to go a little deeper.”
But it was also an approach born of Sabella’s own reaction to the video, together with the cumulative impact of the trial of former Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin bringing back images of George Floyd’s death and the separate police shooting of 20-year-old Daunte Wright in a Minneapolis suburb.
“When I watched (the Chicago shooting), I felt super sick,” Sabella said. “It was a gut punch. I want people to read about that without having to see it.”
Shortly after the video was released, Brian Carovillano, vice president and managing editor of The Associated Press, sent an email to staff members warning that many people who had seen it found it very upsetting.
“We want to assure you that you don’t have to watch this,” Carovillano wrote. “The journalists who are managing and covering the story have what they need.”
Edited portions of the video appeared on the ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts on Thursday, which together reach around 20 million people. The top-rated program, ABC’s “World News Tonight,” repeated the chase scene four times.
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USC’s Richardson said journalists have to think about the effect these police videos have on followers; she shields her children from them. She said she understands why showing them is necessary, particularly when the footage contradicts official reports, but she looks forward to when scenes of suffering don’t have to be aired.
“I equate it with lynching photography,” she said.
Danielle Kilgo, a professor of journalism, diversity and equality at the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities, said she sees the value of videos helping to make police incidents more than he said-she said stories. She understands the reasoning behind freezing the Toledo video just before he’s shot but also worries that doing so leaves room for conspiracy theorists to thrive.
News organizations in virtually all cases warned people that what they were about to see could be considered graphic or disturbing.
CBS’ King, in an interview, said she worries that such warnings are becoming so routine that they are becoming white noise to viewers.
“It used to be when you heard something like that, you’d say, ‘Oh, my God, what’s about to happen?’” she said. “Now you almost don’t hear it.”
Police ID gunman in FedEx shooting as young male in 20s
Police scoured a Fedex facility in Indianapolis and interviewed scores of witnesses Friday in search of a motive for the latest mass shooting to rock the U.S., as family members of the eight victims spent agonizing hours waiting for word on their loved ones.
Authorities identified the shooter as a young man in his 20s. They said they could not yet say why he opened fire with a rifle late Thursday night at a FedEx processing center near the Indianapolis airport.
Police Chief Randal Taylor also noted that a “significant” number of employees at the facility are members of the Sikh community. Taylor spoke from a hotel where family members are awaiting word on their loved ones. He says he will stay with the families until they get more information.
Deputy Chief Craig McCartt of the Indianapolis police said the gunman started randomly shooting at people in the parking lot and then went into the building and continued firing. He said the gunman apparently died by suicide shortly before police entered the building.
“There was no confrontation with anyone that was there,” he said. “There was no disturbance, there was no argument. He just appeared to randomly start shooting.”
McCartt said four people were killed outside the building and another four inside. Several people were also wounded, including five taken to the hospital.
Also read: 8 dead in shooting at FedEx facility in Indianapolis
The carnage took just a couple of minutes. “It did not last very long,” he said.
Officials with the coroner’s office said they had not been able to get to the scene to identify the victims because evidence is still being collected.
The families’ agonizing waiting was exacerbated by the fact that most employees aren’t allowed to carry cellphones inside the FedEx building, making contact with them difficult.
“When you see notifications on your phone, but you’re not getting a text back from your kid and you’re not getting information and you still don’t know where they are … what are you supposed to do?” Mindy Carson said early Friday, fighting back tears.
At 11:30 a.m., Carson said she had just heard from her daughter, Jessica, who works in the facility. She said her daughter was OK and she was going to meet her, but didn’t say where.
It was the latest in a recent string of mass shootings across the U.S. Last month, eight people were fatally shot at massage businesses across the Atlanta area, and 10 died in gunfire at a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado.
It was at least the third mass shooting this year in Indianapolis alone. Five people, including a pregnant woman, were shot and killed in January, and a man was accused of killing three adults and a child before abducting his daughter during at argument at a home in March.
Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett said the community must guard against resignation and “the assumption that this is simply how it must be and we might as well get used to it.”
Also read: Child among 4 dead in shooting at California office building
President Joe Biden said he had been briefed on the shooting and called gun violence “an epidemic” in the U.S.
“Too many Americans are dying every single day from gun violence. It stains our character and pierces the very soul of our nation,” he said in a statement.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she was “horrified and heartbroken” by the shooting and called for congressional action on gun control.
“As we pray for the families of all affected, we must work urgently to enact commonsense gun violence prevention laws to save lives & prevent this suffering,” the Democratic leader said in a tweet.
A witness said that he was working inside the building when he heard several gunshots in rapid succession.
“I see a man come out with a rifle in his hand and he starts firing and he starts yelling stuff that I could not understand,” Levi Miller told WTHR-TV. “What I ended up doing was ducking down to make sure he did not see me because I thought he would see me and he would shoot me.”
Gov. Eric Holcomb ordered flags to be flown at half-staff until April 20, and he and others decried the shooting, with some noting how frequent such attacks are.
Chris Bavender, a spokesperson for the FBI’s Indianapolis office, said that they are helping the police with the investigation.
A man told WTTV that his niece was sitting in the driver’s seat of her car when the gunfire erupted, and she was wounded.
“She got shot on her left arm,” said Parminder Singh. “She’s fine, she’s in the hospital now.”
8 dead in shooting at FedEx facility in Indianapolis
Eight people were shot and killed in a late-night shooting at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis, and the shooter killed himself, police said.
Multiple other people were injured Thursday night when gunfire erupted at the facility near the Indianapolis International Airport, police spokesperson Genae Cook said.
At least four were hospitalized, including one person with critical injuries. Another two people were treated and released at the scene, Cook said.
Also read: Child among 4 dead in shooting at California office building
The shooter wasn’t immediately identified, and investigators were in the process of conducting interviews and gathering information. Cook said it was too early to tell whether the shooter was an employee at the facility.
The shooting was the latest in a string of mass shootings across the U.S. in recent months. Eight people were fatally shot at massage businesses across metro Atlanta, and 10 died in gunfire at a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado last month.
This was at least the third mass shooting this year in Indianapolis. Five people, including a pregnant woman, were shot and killed in January, and a man was accused of killing three adults and a child before abducting his daughter during at argument at a home in March.
Police were called to reports of gunfire Thursday just after 11 p.m. and officers observed an active shooting scene, Cook said. The gunman later killed himself.
“We’re still trying to ascertain the exact reason and cause for this incident,” Cook said.
FedEx released a statement saying it is cooperating with authorities and working to get more information.
“We are aware of the tragic shooting at our FedEx Ground facility near the Indianapolis airport. Safety is our top priority, and our thoughts are with all those who are affected,” the statement said.
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Family members gathered at a local hotel to await word on loved ones. Some said employees aren’t allowed to have their phones with them while working shifts at the facility, making it difficult to contact them, WTHR-TV reported.
Live video from news outlets at the scene showed crime scene tape in the parking lot outside the facility.
A witness who said he works at the facility told WISH-TV that he saw a man with a gun after hearing several gunshots.
“I saw a man with a submachine gun of some sort, an automatic rifle, and he was firing in the open,” Jeremiah Miller said.
Another man told WTTV that his niece was sitting in the driver’s seat of her car when the gunfire erupted, and she was wounded.
“She got shot on her left arm,” said Parminder Singh. “She’s fine, she’s in the hospital now.”
He said his niece did not know the shooter.