Walmart Shooting Leaves 1 Dead, 4 Injured: Report

A man was killed and four others were injured after a gunman opened fire at a Walmart distribution center. The shooting took place on Saturday afternoon in Red Bluff, California.

Authorities identified the gunman as a 31-year-old former employee, according to the New York Times. Fifteen minutes after the shooting started, police officers killed the gunman.

Around 3:30 p.m. local time, Walmart employees noticed a man driving around the facility’s parking lot. He reportedly circled the building four times before crashing into the building. The gunman then started firing with an “AR-type weapon.”

Walmart employee, Franklin Lister, clocked in right around the time the shooting started. He recalls a fellow employee running down the hallway shouting: “Active gunfire! Active shooter!”

While running for safety, Lister says he heard 50 to 60 gunshots. “To hear that much gunfire, it was frantic,” Lister said.  “People were running as fast as they could move.”

At the time of the shooting, about 200 employees were inside the facility. According to police radio transmissions, multiple employees barricaded themselves in the back of the distribution center.

Minutes later, an officer arrived on the scene. Lieutenant Borden, a spokeswoman for the Tehama County Sheriff’s Office, said the officer and the gunman exchanged “quite a bit of gunfire.”

The officer shot the gunman dead at 3:48 p.m. Authorities did not publicly identify the shooter.

Authorities say the gunman’s motive remains unknown. However, Lieutenant Borden says there’s no connection to another California shooting earlier in the day.

Walmart’s Statement on the Shooting

Lieutenant Borden later identified the victim as Martin Haro-Lozano. He was 45-years-old and from Oroville, California. Haro-Lozano was an employee at the facility.

Following the incident, Scott Pope, a Walmart spokesman, shared a statement. “Our focus is on supporting our associates, as well as their families and co-workers in the facility,” Pope said. “This is an active police investigation and we will continue to work with Tehama County Sheriff’s Office and assist in their investigation in any way possible.”

[H/T New York Times]

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