One Safeway employee, aged 66, who was killed in a Sunday evening shooting at of the supermarket’s chain locations out in Bend, Oregon, has been labeled as a hero in the wake of their attempt to disarm the gunman, which police officials have stated most likely stopped further deaths from happening.
Another resident of Bend, Donald Ray Surrett Jr., rushed to attack the 20-year-old gunman near the back of the store in the produce area after the shooter had fired off quite a few rounds from a rifle, explained police officials.
“Mr. Surrett acted heroically during this terrible incident,” stated Sheila Miller, the Bend PD Communications Manager, as part of a Monday press conference.
Donald’s ex-wife, Debora Jean Surrett, stated to The Associated Press as part of an interview held on the phone that her former husband was a veteran that had served as a combat engineer for the U.S. Army for a period of 20 years.
Despite Surrett not being deployed out to active combat zones, his ex-wife said that he took pride in his training with other combat engineers to be the “first ones to go into war and the last ones to come home.”
Additionally, during the press conference, police officials identified another victim.
Also of Bend, 84-year-old Glenn Edward Bennett was shot just inside of the western entrance to the supermarket.
Miller stated that authorities with Bend Fire performed their first aid efforts on Bennet, but unfortunately he did not survive.
Officers were able to make it to the scene in just under three minutes after getting the first call to 911. Miller stated that the first pair of officers “entered the store to confront the shooter” from different entrances in the front and back while shots were still echoing out of the store.
As reported to the Central Oregon Daily, Heather Thompson stated that she had heard multiple shots while across the street.
“I heard anywhere from five to eight shots. I thought it sounded like backfire,” stated Thompson.
Thompson stated that she heard sets of “10 to 20 shots” just a short time later.
“And by that time, I went inside and told my dad to get away from the window,” she continued. “And people were running out of Safeway.”
Within just a few minutes, authorities stated that they found the gunman next ot the produce section dead from self-inflicted gunshot wounds with an “AR 15 style rifle and a shotgun in close proximity to the shooter.”
The gunman apparently lived in a close-by apartment complex where he regularly posted threatening and violent messages to his social media, which has since been shared on social media in the wake of the shooting.
A local news outlet reported that just a day before the shooting that he was “done waiting” and that Sunday would be “doomsday . . . I can’t stand more than one more day of absolute misery.”
Police officials carried out a search warrant of the apartment and car and discovered three Molotov cocktails, a sawed-off shotgun, ammunition, and digital devices currently under investigation.
Miller reported that authorities working with the ureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are looking into if the weaponry was obtained via legal means.
