A gunman opened fire at a Walmart located in Dayton, Ohio, before taking his own life, according to the authorities. The incident happened on Monday night, November 20, leaving four people injured.
This violence marks at least the second death shooting at the retail company. In a separate but related incident almost 10 years ago, police shot and killed a man clutching an air rifle he discovered on the store's shelf without its packing.
4 Injured, 1 Dead
According to the Beavercreek Police Department, a male suspect entered the store at 8:35 PM local time, fired shots at four persons, and then shot himself. The department reports that he died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
In a social media post, the police agency also said that no officers involved in the response fired their weapons.
Capt. Scott Molnar stated in a press conference on Monday that the wounded had been sent to local hospitals for treatment. There was no information available about their current situation.
The suspect has not been named, and it is unknown whether or not he was known to any of the victims at the store.
"We're heartbroken by what's happened at our Beavercreek, Ohio, store. This remains a developing situation, and we're working closely with investigators on the scene," A Walmart representative told CNN on Monday night.
WKEF, via ABC 6, said that customers include students from neighboring Wright State University.
"It's crazy thinking that we're literally less than five minutes away where we live. They could have went to a campus and not a Walmart, and it could have been us," Wright State University student Kailie Conley stated in the interview.
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives were all working together to figure out what happened that night.
UPDATE: There is no active threat. A male walked into the Walmart in Beavercreek around 8:35 p.m. Monday and began firing a gun, injuring four people. The victims were transported to area hospitals and their conditions are unknown at this time.
— Beavercreek PD (@beavercreekohpd) November 21, 2023
Shooting Incidents at Walmart Stores
According to the Gun Violence Archive, this incident is one of at least 609 mass shootings that have taken place in the United States this year. The Gun Violence Archive defines a mass shooting as an incident in which four or more persons are shot, excluding the gunman.
Back in September, there was a shooting at a separate Walmart, and local police said two people were killed. The victims are identified as 26-year-old James Wyatt Norton and 20-year-old Zoey Nicole Messenger, both residents of Hiram City in Georgia.
Meanwhile, in 2014, another shooting occurred at the exact location at Walmart in Dayton, Ohio, as reported by CNN station WLWT. As a result of picking up an unwrapped air rifle that had been placed on top of its box inside the shop, 22-year-old John Crawford III was shot and killed by police. Outrage and demands for change followed the shooting death of the unarmed Black man.
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