The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Police: Grocery store gunman was vendor, didn’t have target
A gunman who killed one person and wounded 14 others in a Tennessee grocery store did not appear to target anyone specifically as he rampaged through the building on a sunny Thursday afternoon, police said. The entire shooting was over within minutes as first responders swarmed the scene.
On Friday, some of the wounded were still in critical condition and fighting for their lives, Collierville Police Chief Dale Lane said at a morning news conference.
Still, the outcome could have been worse, he said. The shooter died of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound within a couple of minutes of police arriving, and they arrived almost immediately at the Kroger in the wealthy suburb outside of Memphis.
The gunman acted alone and was a third-party vendor to the store who was on site on a daily basis, Lane said.
He was later identified by Maj. David Townsend as UK Thang. Police searched his home Thursday and removed electronic devices, Lane said.
“We all want to know the why,“Lane said of the shooter’s motive.
“But today, less than 24 hours, we’re not ready to tell you that.”
The victims included 10 employees and five customers.
Lane identified the woman who was killed as Olivia King. Friends told The Commercial Appeal newspaper she was a widowed mother of three.
On Facebook, one of King’s sons, Wes King, posted about his mother’s death. He wrote he had spoken to the trauma surgeon and learned his mother was shot in the chest.
“They tried to save her at the hospital to no avail,” he wrote. “I apologize for the graphic details, but this type of crime needs to stop being glossed over and sanitized. No one deserves this.”
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.”
Lane said police received a call around 1:30 p.m. about the shooting and arrived almost immediately, finding multiple people with gunshot wounds upon entering the building.