Armed civilian shoots, kills gunman outside a Walmart

A gunman who opened fire inside a Tumwater, Wash., Walmart and injured at least two people during carjacking attempts was fatally shot by one of two armed civilians confronting him Sunday evening, according to police.

Police were still piecing together the full story of the events that began about 5 p.m. Pacific Time in the town just south of Olympia when they received a call about a possibly drunken driver heading the wrong way on a main road near a local high school, said Laura Wohl, Tumwater police public information officer.

As police sped to the scene, they received a second call about a carjacking with shots fired. When officers arrived there, they found a 16-year-old girl with unspecified non-life-threatening injuries but no suspect. They quickly located the stolen car, but once again no suspect.

At about 5:30 they started getting numerous calls of shots fired in and around a nearby Walmart. Wohl said they later confirmed that the man doing the shooting was the same person involved in the carjacking.

She said the man entered the Walmart, fired shots at a display case and then went into the parking lot.

There he attempted to carjack another vehicle, shooting an occupant in it at least twice. Apparently frustrated in his effort, the gunman then attempted a second carjacking.

At that point, she said, two armed civilians in the parking lot confronted the suspect, one of whom shot the man dead.

Police did not identify any of those involved in the incident or the type of weapons used, except to say they were handguns. The victim of the second carjacking attempt was in critical condition at Harborview Hospital.

The action inside the store set off fears of a possible mass shooting. Indeed, local media reported that the fire department alerted them to a “mass casualty” incident.