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One dead, 12 wounded in Tennessee grocery store shooting

Sep 24, 2021

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A Thursday afternoon shooting at a Kroger store in Tennessee left one dead and 12 wounded. All 12 were taken to hospitals, some with serious injuries.

The video above includes clips from the scene, as well as statements from an officer and a witness.

The Kroger store where the shooting happened is located in Collierville, a suburban town about 30 miles east of Memphis.

Collierville Police Chief Dale Lane said officers found the shooter dead in the store of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. The identities of the shooter, as well as the the victims, were not immediately released.

In the aftermath of the shooting, Kroger employees and customers described their experiences being in and around the store as the shooting happened.

“It first started in the deli and I heard some gunshots,” Brignetta Dickerson said. “We thought it was balloons popping, so  when it kept on going, we said, ‘No, that’s gunshots.’ So I ran.”

Meanwhile, Jason Lusk had just left the tool store next to the Kroger when he heard some women screaming in the parking lot about the shooting. He didn’t see the gunman, but heard 10 to 15 rounds in rapid succession.

“As the firing started, I dove in front of my vehicle onto the ground to provide the most cover for myself and instructed the people around me panicking, trying to get into the cars, not to get in their cars, but to actually hide,” Lusk said.

Back inside the store, Dickerson got an up close and personal view of the shooting.

“He comes right behind us, starts shooting. And he kept on shooting, shooting, shooting,” Dickerson said. “He shot one of my coworkers in the head and shot one of the customers in the stomach.”

According to Lusk, police arrived within minutes and “they swarmed that place”.

Lane said a SWAT team and other officers went aisle to aisle in the store after the shooting. There, they found people who sought cover in the store, or were in hiding during the shooting.

“We found people hiding in freezers, in locked offices,” Lane said. “They were doing what they had been trained to do: run, hide, fight.”

He went on to say it was a sad day for his department.

“I’ve been involved in this for 34 years and I’ve never seen anything like it,” he told reporters near the store at a news conference after the meeting.

Chief Dale Lane, Collierville Police Department: “As bad as this scene is, and it’s horrific. I’ve been involved in this 34 years and I’ve never seen anything like it. But our teams came together and worked together. That’s not just the law enforcement agencies, but the fire. Sometimes there’s a delay. There’s no delay with our firemen coming into that scene with us. We just trained on this back two months ago at Collierville High School. So it is, like I said, it is with a broken heart that I have to stand before you here today.”

Jason Lusk, Bystander: “The gunfire was so close, it sounded like it was directly over my head. I could feel the concussion from the gunfire.”

“I got about five feet from my car and 10 to 15 rounds were fired in rapid succession, sounded like there were directly over my head. I’m a bit of a gun enthusiast myself, so it was easy for me to recognize the proximity of the firing and what what kind of weapon it was. It was, in my opinion, the 223 rifle, semi-automatic rifle, probably an AR 15 or something like that.”

“So I knew that even at that distance, about 40 yards, we were in serious danger, me and all the other people in the parking lot not taking cover. As the as the firing started I dove in front of my vehicle onto the ground to provide the most cover for myself and instructed the people around me panicking, trying to get into the cars, not to get in their cars, but to actually hide.”

“The police arrived in like three minutes. I have to give them major, you know, recognition for their fast response time, I was highly impressed. They swarmed that place like like the pack of wild dogs. It was crazy.”