At about 6:20 this morning, a longtime Walmart employee opened fire in a Walmart store in Southaven, Mississippi, a suburb of Memphis. New reports identify the shooter as a former employee. Two Walmart employees are dead.
The shooter was shot twice and wounded by a responding police officer. The officer was shot as well, but the round was stopped by his bulletproof vest and he’s expected to survive.
The following report from Local 24 in Memphis calls the shooter a “former employee.”
From the Associated Press . . .
SOUTHAVEN, Miss. (AP) — A gunman fatally shot two people and wounded a police officer before he was shot and arrested Tuesday at a Walmart in northern Mississippi, authorities said.
The gunman was shot by a Southaven Police officer and was hospitalized in unknown condition, DeSoto County Sheriff Bill Rasco told WATN-TV.
Both of the people who died Tuesday morning were Walmart employees, WREG-TV reported. One person was found dead in the store and another found dead in the parking lot, WHBQ-TV reported.
Baptist Memorial Hospital-DeSoto tells WATN-TV the officer was hit in his bulletproof vest and not seriously injured.
For customers and bystanders, the shooting turned a sleepy early morning into a panic at the Walmart Supercenter in Southaven, a suburb of Memphis, Tennessee.
Carlos Odom, 35, said he usually comes to the Walmart to visit his cousin, who works there, and was leaving at about 6:30 a.m. when he heard more than a dozen shots.
“I just hear gunshots,” Odom said. “Pow. Pow. Pow. Pow. Pow.”
“When the cops run into the Walmart, you hear more gunshots,” Odom said. “After that, it stopped.”
Odom said he ran out into the parking lot and later spoke by phone with his cousin, who told him one of the victims was an employee, and the gunman worked there as well.
Phil Cox, 70, said had just bought some nasal spray and was in the parking lot when he thought he heard a gunshot, and then saw a man run into the store. He got into his truck to leave as police began arriving.
“Everything went crazy at that point,” Cox said, expressing sympathy for employees. “It’s just hard to believe what happened here, but it seems like it’s happening everywhere.”
The Walmart is in a large shopping complex at a busy exit off Interstate 55 in Southaven, a suburb of 55,000 people which lies just south of the state line from Memphis, Tennessee. A massive police presence surrounded the store Tuesday morning, with a large part of the parking lot blocked off by yellow crime tape. Reporters saw employees gather in a circle and pray after the shooting, as police continued to swarm the scene.
“We’re still gathering details ourselves on everything that has happened,” Walmart spokesman Randy Hargrove said Tuesday morning.
The Bentonville, Arkansas-based company is assisting law enforcement, and plans to release a statement later, he said.
A woman answering the phone at the Southaven Police Department Tuesday morning said “we have ongoing emergencies” and no one was available to provide information.
Let me guess, semi-automatic?
Bolt action
Cap and ball.
Sounds like a fast response by the police. Not sure what the laws are like down there but it’s always a shame when a trained, carrying person isn’t there to more quickly intervene and save lives.
“Not sure what the laws are like down there but it’s always a shame when a trained, carrying person isn’t there to more quickly intervene and save lives.”
Not all folks who carry are cut out for defending someone else who doesn’t have a personal relationship with them.
And I’m not about to condemn them for making that choice…
Actually, it’s unwise to defend anyone but yourself and you loved ones. Remember this, there are courts of law and anything seems to go in them.
Save yourself and yours only. If others haven’t prepared to do the same it’s on them.
Bingo. All this hero complex crap is going to backfire on the CCW community. Someone is going to sue (and win) because a gun toting citizen did not engage a shooter.
And all that constant BS about if only there was a good guy with a gun makes it worse.
It’s my understanding that no citizen is obligated legally to take action in the form of protecting others. My conscience would bother me if I did nothing and someone was killed or hurt. My suggestion is, if you plan on doing nothing, keep the fact that you are carrying to yourself. Others have no need to know if or when you are carrying anyway.
McKenze, the good guy with a gun (in uniform) arrived and stopped the murderer…eventually. So, yes, I do wish there was a good guy with a gun there, so he could stop the murderer sooner. Why is that BS?
David when the shooting starts i would be defending my life
“Not sure what the laws are like down there…”
Generally in MS one can carry openly or concealed and holstered without a permit or with a permit. Businesses can post signs which by law ban CCW, unless one has the “enhanced” permit, when you can carry past the sign. Suffice it to say there were almost certainly other armed citizens in the store at the time.
Jesus, is there a national heat wave going on and I just haven’t noticed? People are popping off more than usual lately.
Maybe. Or maybe it’s just being reported more heavily because it’s an election year and the Democrats made it an issue.
https://www.outtherecolorado.com/mountain-town-party-ends-in-massive-shootout-in-colorado/
Notice they don’t really wanna talk that much about the “Monday Night Massacre” at the DCCC last night…
yea pretty much. These things get reported in waves. As many have stated, nothing on the event in brooklyn and numerous others. Just the ones they seem to think will fit their narrative.
You say “nothing on the event in Brooklyn”.
Perhaps you missed the CNN story one day ago, here it is with all the details of the shooting available at the time.
“CNN) — Twelve people were struck by gunfire at a Brooklyn park shortly after the close of a festival that drew thousands of revelers, police said.
One man died and another victim who was in critical condition has been upgraded and is stable after the shooting Saturday night in the Brownsville neighborhood, the New York Police Department said.
The wounded victims range in age from 21 to 55 years old. The slain man was identified by police Monday as Jason Pagan, 38, of Brooklyn.”
May I suggest the use of a search engine such as Google to find out more about the world around you.
It is a bit deceptive to label it a massacre when no one was injured, much less killed.
“No injuries were reported, but the mayhem was the most commotion in years for the scenic village of about 870 people.”
But if calling it a massacre fits your narrative better, have at it! Why let the facts interfere with your opinion.
The “Monday Night Massacre” refers to the fact that most of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s senior staff resigned last night after being accused of lacking diversity (being racist) by Marcia Fudge (D-OH) which is getting little media coverage.
The WaPo is covering it, and the comment section is *gold*.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/diversity-concerns-at-house-democrats-campaign-committee-lead-top-staffer-to-quit/2019/07/29/7fa9df80-b224-11e9-8f6c-7828e68cb15f_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.be6246d494ca
Strangely enough I have a WaPo account so I can read that comment section.
Yeah, it’s funny to some extent but OTOH it’s sad because it reads like the Leftwing version of some of the comment sections right here on TTAG.
The clues seem to be “25 years” and “former employee”.
Best to wait a day or two and see what was really going on.
Probably came to the realization he wasted 25 years of his life working for faceless corporation and just got tired of the suck and abuse.
Nobody forced him to work for Walmart.
Depends on his situation in which neither of us know.
Well, Walmart’s usual technique of moving into a community, using super low prices to drive the mom and pop neighborhood stores out of business and then raising prices while providing the only employment option could have contributed to his need to be employed at Walmart.
But hey, if it’s profitable, who cares about the community or your neighbors, greed justifies any behavior, right?
Funny, in our county (pop 75,000) that has had two Wal Marts for the past 30 years, two Lowes, a Home Depot, and three Krogers only three mom and pop stores have gone out of business. One was a family owned grocery that closed when the owner died and his kids didn’t want to carry on and the other was a hardware store that closed when the owner went to prison for hiring a hitman to kill his wife. The local furniture store when down when the owner started taking deposits and not delivering furniture. He did some jail time and was court ordered to never work at a furniture business in the state again.
What closed down the mom and pop clothing stores down town were JC Penny’s and Sears moving from down town out to the mall. The mall area has had numerous big box stores go out of business, all national chains.
Nobody forced him to work at Walmart. Regardless of the bastard’s situation.
I suppose when the alternatives are to work two or more poor paying jobs to try and make the same living, move to a location with more / better jobs which is likely unaffordable for someone working at walmart of all places, or simply living under a bridge, yeah no one put the proverbial gun to his head and forced him to work at walmart. However, for all practical reasons, yeah, he was likely forced to work at walmart.
“Naw, naw, it was all personals. See he was seein’ Shaniqua, she stocked in the cosmetics you know, and they was cool ‘n all ’til he got firet fo bein late fo the fifth time, then she started stepping out wit Lil Ray-Ray what works in the tire shop. She says she didn want nuttin to do wit him no more since he didn have no job so he could take care of her.”
Shaquanda in produce was overhead to say.
Sounds like you are trying to come up with an excuse for the murderer’s actions.
Well that explains why there is so much violence in the Crack business. They just get tired of working for a faceless far away drug kingpin. That hard working employee just started shooting up the neighborhood. Or shot other Crack dealers.
There is so much pressure in the capitalism of the Crack dealing business. Some just can’t take it.
They just Crack up.
@Cliff,
Always the best advice. Keep our mouths shut until more facts are confirmed and a clearer picture is available.
I gotta be honest, that doesn’t really surprise me out of Memphis. I lived just outside of the city for about a decade. I drove a truck delivering milk to Walmart’s, Sam’s Club, and Aldi’s stores, including that one.. In that time I saw open fights between employees and customers in no less than three occasions. And probably about a dozen incidents between customs. This is just a terrible tragedy, but it’s also emblematic of greater problems in that area. :/
Man, Walmart is kinda sketchy. I was there at 0330 this morning because reasons and that time of day even the security guy is a weirdo.
I’ve never known any Walmarts to be open at that early hour in the middle of the night (at least none I’ve ever been to in any state I’ve visited). Sounds like your “visit” is a little sketchy.
Enlighten, please.
Many Wal-marts are open 24 hours. Even those in better neighborhoods are a bit sketch at that early morning hour.
Interesting. Okay, so I guess I’ve only visited a limited number (CA, NV, AZ, SD, OK, etc.) The ones near me have always been closed between 12am – 6am ever since they were built over 20 years ago, and I’ve never seen any locations with 24/7 hours posted on their doors. But I’ll readily accept that other regions have 24/7.
Learn something new every day. 🙂
Oh, and I still think visiting Wally World at 3am for any reason other than getting ice cream for your pregnant wife is kinda sketchy…
Yes, the two in my county are 24-hr operations. Stopped in for last minute hunting or fishing supplies at 4 a.m. plenty of times.
That’s odd, here in Michigan every Walmart I know of is open 24/7. I deliver news papers in the early am and regularly do my grocery shopping between 3:00 and 5:00 am (the drunks are all passed out by then). With so few people around it is much easier to keep an eye on what’s going on around me and maintain distance. Always vigilant, always armed.
Given the recent shootings in Wisconsin Mike may want to consider that Wisconsin is just too dangerous to have 24 hour Walmarts.
On the other hand, it seems Michigan is safe enough for the Walmarts to remain open 24-seven. May be just a more law-abiding population in Michigan then Wisconsin.
“May be just a more law-abiding population in Michigan then Wisconsin.”
I doubt it. Just less violent I guess. My ex-wife worked at the local Wally World when it first opened. At the end of their first year they had the highest shrink rate (lost/missing/stolen merchandise) for any Walmart in the country. 2 and a half tractor trailers worth of merchandise went missing in 12 months.
“Given the recent shootings in Wisconsin Mike may want to consider that Wisconsin is just too dangerous to have 24 hour Walmarts”.
Except none of these shootings are happening at 3am, this stuff happens in the middle of the day. So it may actually be SAFER to shop in the wee hours vs normal daytime hours. As mentioned, far less people in the store at those times to have to keep an eye on..
The hours between midnight and 3 a.m. used to be my favorite time to go shop for groceries and necessities (now I’m too old to stay up that late). Nobody in the store except me and the employees stocking shelves. It’s amazingly peaceful.
+1
+1
Isn’t this just one of Vlad’s many accounts? The only thing sketchy here is you. Wal-mart near me is 24 hours. I have worked odd hours before. Sometimes it’s nice to grab something during your “lunch”.
Nope, though I’ve asked Pg2 that very question several times. He seems to be convinced that I’m “Goeff”.
I still think he’s Vlad’s incoherent alter-ego. There are definitely two Vlads haunting these pages.
Explain:
Not everything is some kind of sketchball shit that people here seem to assume.
My wife came to bed late and woke me up to tell me that my CGM was registering me as hypoglycemic. Based on the times and my own personal “magic numbers”, which is more detail than anyone here probably wants, that meant I could drop further overnight because the long acting insulin is a bit “front-heavy” and that such a drop could be enough to be dangerous. It could also be an error generated by my rolling over on the sensor and pushing the wire into muscle which causes the sensor to read low by 30-240mg/dl or a few other things. So I had to do a fingerstick to see what was going on.
I dropped the last test strip for that meter in the sink, and it bounced right down the disposal because it’s 3 in the damn morning and Murphy can eat a bag of dicks. So I went to a backup meter but the backup meter runs on strips that come in a jar. If they get any moisture in them they tend to not work correctly and they’re not individually sealed like the first strip that I dropped. I tried one it read impossibly high, higher than when I was in the hospital last year, and in fact pushing the unit’s ability to actually display the number. I’d feel like absolute shit if this was true and, well, other things about my personal physiology make this very, very doubtful since I haven’t been within 550 points of this reading like… ever. The second one read impossibly low because if it was even close to correct I’d be shaking like a leaf and sweating like a watermelon at a Baptist barbecue.
But the MoE on this data set is wide enough (like 860 points) that I need to know what’s going on because it could mean a bunch of things that need to be eliminated like a bad pen of insulin, faulty sensor, dying reader, something really fucked where I need to hit the ER etc etc.
So, there’s a 24 hour pharmacy a few towns over, about 15 miles away, or a 24 hour Walmart about three miles away. Walmart it is.
Dayum, you gotta sleep hooked to monitors and wires and shit? No wonder you’re hyper preachy about diet and exercise.
No. It’s a wearable sensor a bit bigger than a nickel that lasts 14 days and can be scanned wirelessly. The “wire” is a flexible needle that sits in interstitial tissue and has a sub-coating that generates an electrical current based on how much glucose it interacts with and an outer coating that hides the wire from your immune system. The glucose/gold interaction generates a voltage along the wire which is interpreted by the sensor and that data stored until the unit it scanned with wireless scanner that has the proper encryption key or until eight hours have passed (max the sensor can store).
When people talk about how in the future we’ll be cyborgs I just laugh and think “Future? I’m one right now you silly normy”.
Still, trust me, this is NOT something you want. Manage to develop T2 and you’re gonna hate you life.
@strych9,
Good grief, that was too long a read. Skipped everything after the first two sentences. It was just a tongue-in-cheek joke, dude. You didn’t have to spend the next hour writing a book to explain why you went to Walmart at 3am. If you want to go, then go.
Thanks S9, I think true stories like yours can help folks understand why diet and exercise is so important.
So many young people drink sugary beverages like soda pop, etc. plus sugary processed foods all day long.
A majority of Americans are obese, and don’t get anywhere near the exercise they should to prevent heart disease or diabetes.
Personal accounts like yours can perhaps make the consequences of poor diet and no exercise more real to our friends and neighbors and families.
Seriously, thanks for sharing.
I have 2 Walmarts one 10 minutes away another a 20 minute drive, both open 24 hrs. At least 6 more all within reasonable proximity and all open 24 hrs. I do most of my shopping in the early morning hours between one and four AM no crowds, self checkout, in and out…
Couple of cops are usually at Wally World after midnight doing security around here. They are the ones you know that have ticked their Sgts, Lts, and Cpts off..bad to get that duty. lol
Can’t go there after dark or even in the evening hours, its a ghetto zone.
Well they found out the garlic killer was Iranian , so they drop that story pretty quick
quote——————Well they found out the garlic killer was Iranian , so they drop that story pretty quick———————–quote
If this is even true they dropped it because he was born in the U.S. If you are German and born here does that make you a WWII Nazi? Get real your racism is sickening. Your racist attitude is the same racist right wing attitude that brainwashed the killer. You and he are of the same exact mentality. His ethnic origin has nothing to do with it but then again that is way over your head.
“The great destroyer of racism, bigotry and narrow mindedness is travel”. So said Mark Twain whom I am sure you would call a “commie”. He was a world traveler and appreciated other countries and their cultures.
It would do you well to leave Podunck Junction sometime and see the “real world” and speak to “real foreigners” in times of peace and not as a military invader of rape, pillage and conquest. I might add I have spoken to quite a few foreign people that say they would never take the chance and come to visit in the U.S. with all its gun violence and death and rivers of blood running down its streets. I had to admit they were right. Even down town Beirut looking at its entire history is far more peaceful and safe than the streets of Chicago or even the beaches in Miami.
“If this is even true they dropped it because he was born in the U.S.”
A cat that gives birth in an oven has kittens, not biscuits. There is no such thing as magic dirt. If your parents are German and you are born in Japan, that makes you a German born in Japan, not a Japanese.
If you are not descended from the generation who founded this nation, you are not an American.
Exactly why Mexicans are just as American as apple pie 🙂
Proud. I’m a Scots Irish hillbilly whose family has been here since flintlock days.
I don’t really care for apple pie. Guess I’m not a good American.
to Herr Hauptman Chris Mallory
””””””””””””””””””””””’If you are not descended from the generation who founded this nation, you are not an American.””””””””””””””””””””’
Spoken like the most disgusting of all Americans, i.e. the Racist. You must be directly related to Trump who by the way is only 3rd generation American. People like you turn the stomachs of all decent Americans who by the way out number you by the millions. If you really are descended from the original settlers you have been here too long and we would gladly trade guys like you for immigrants who by the way are the real people who made and continue to make this country great not low life scum bags like you who do not deserve citizenship as you violate our most sacred American values. Its written on the inscription on the Statue of Liberty which you mock and violate with your disgusting comments. You sound just like Hitler and his followers and also you sound like the Trump Nazi’s that marched at Charlottesville. They all were speaking the same disgusting racial garbage. My father bumped off Hitlers Nazi’s in WWII and we of the next generation since will never let new generation Nazi’s like you repeat history.
I would gladly have people living next to me that braved walking thousands of miles through the desert to become Americans after crossing the border rather than have a person like you living next to me that would not walk across the street to help an immigrant or refugee.
status of liberty can melted n make a lot of bulleats.
How to Indian tribes work out in your true americans founding statement?
A few Boos from the peanuts section I see, you stew in that LOL, he was Iranian Indian and they dropped it and oh yeah do your homework Son and try to keep up with what goes on in America
“…and not as a military invader of rape, pillage and conquest.”
Ah, I see you are familiar with UN troops.
They will never admit it, but the media has to take some of the blame for all these shootings. If there wasn’t so much publicity about them, some of the sickos who do it in order to have their 15 minutes of fame, would not be inspired to outdo the last occurrence.
Yes, conceal the news from the citizens, they will be so much easier to manipulate if they’re not aware of current events.
The government can just tell us what we need to know. Yep, that sounds like freedom to me!
Why, Thomas Jefferson himself said that freedom of the press is the most dangerous idea to America, didn’t he?
They are awfully selective about it. The media that is. They are partisan hacks.
There was 314 people shot this month in Chicago. 44 killed. How many of them have you heard about on national news?
Only story that helps to push a narrative gets published. If it fits the needs of leftist propaganda, it gets plastered on our tv screens 24/7 for weeks. If it doesn’t, it gets quickly swept under the rug.
No, VLAD,or MINER 49er, or whoever you pretend to be, I did not suggest that the public was never made aware of the shootings; what I meant, and which your brain is unable to assimilate, is that some of the people who do these shootings do it to have their name immortalized, and the media plays into doing just that for them.
If it would just be that the media just told the number of people who were killed/injured without mentioning the perps name(s), occurrences such as this would decrease. They are doing it for the glory, and some morons can’t seem to gasp this concept.
Why do some of the shooters/bombers have a lengthy manifesto, which they demand that it be made known to the public ? Because they want the notoriety.
All you morons who say it is the GUNS, what gun did RICHARD SPECK, TED BUNDY, and JOHN WAYNE GACEY use………..none.
Yes, conceal the news from the citizens, they will be so much easier to manipulate if they’re not aware of current events.
No one is talking aobut concealing it. The studies show the majority of Americans profoundly overestimate their risk of being a gun murder victim by 1,400% percent — and overestimate by 14,000% if they are not a criminal (and most of us are not criminals).
The press is 120% more likely to mention a gun in a suicide if the means was by gun, than mention the means in other suicides. The press gives a gun murder about 300% the coverage of a murder by other means
And the peer reviewed science has established that it is press coverage that mass killers seek.
Fired for pulling a knife on a customer. Had worked for Walmart for about 15 years, not 25.
Don’t know why the knife.
From local news:
https://wreg.com/2019/07/30/massive-police-presence-at-southaven-walmart-after-reported-shooting/
Two Walmart employees were killed during the shooting. One of them has been identified by WREG’s Melissa Moon as Brandon Gales. The second victim, the officer involved and the suspect have not been identified.
Brandon Gales’ father said his son was 38 years old and leaves behind three children. He said his son grew up in Hernando, and was a department manager who’d worked at the Walmart for 15 or 16 years.
WREG has learned the that former employee was suspended on Monday after pulling a knife on a customer. It appears he then returned to the store on Tuesday and opened fire.
Correction: Strike “Had worked for Walmart for about 15 years, not 25.”
This is why I pocket carry at work. And tell no one. They don’t need to know. And hopefully they will never learn about it either. Because if it comes out its being used.
A 32 is better than a 22. But it’s easier to hide than a 9mm. I like open carry. But all those open carry “bricks” will print like a bad bruise. If you have a desk job you can carry a cannon. Those of us who work for a living need a smaller gun to hide keep our jobs.
Mississippi in a constitutional carry state. Everyone should be carrying a gun.
Agreed, don’t ask don’t tell policy
25 years with company, former employee, 6am on a tuesday so i’m guessing body count wasn’t his motive. Laid off and snapped? Boss nailing his wife? Got tired of people stealing his lunch from the break room fridge? More shall be revealed…..
Local TV station WREG TV reports
A former employee was suspected of carrying out the shooting. He was suspended on Saturday and fired Monday after pulling a knife on a customer, according to a source close to the investigation. He then returned to the store on Tuesday and opened fire.
From the article that was posted here, the shooter did not pull a knife on a customer, he brought it to work and showed to another employee:
“Champion said Abram had previously brought a knife into the Walmart and showed it to an employee, but said it was not pursued beyond police taking a report. He said Abram did not appear to have a previous criminal history”.
Don’t know how accurate that is..
I bet nothing more will be revealed. The media has become a farce. They almost never give any kind of context or background. They talk about tweets now and scantily clad instagram models. You know, the hard hitting stuff
Day or night I hate going to Wally world. It’s a wonder more violent chit doesn’t happen😏
You got that chit right! Too many other places to shop these days.
Too bad he wasn’t shot and killed. A former mass shooter from Arkansas who shot several classmates some years ago was released from juvenile prison after doing ten years or so and he was killed the other day in a car wreck. It doesn’t bother me that the genes from this group of kids will not be passed on.
I reread the article. I see he wasn’t 15, but had worked at Walmart for 15 years. Anyway, still too bad he wasn’t shot dead.
According to the story posted here, the shooter didn’t pull a knife on a customer, he brought it to work and showed it to another employee:
“Champion said Abram had previously brought a knife into the Walmart and showed it to an employee, but said it was not pursued beyond police taking a report. He said Abram did not appear to have a previous criminal history”…
Don’t know how accurate the story is…
Trump lie. He say ” Make America competitive with China ” Can not do, China make 9 year old build shoe till die America no get man to sale shoe for 25 years.
Please take your medication. The democrats made taxpayers pay for it
That fukkin’ marsupial may, just may, be the most sane person commenting here.
Zimmerman ought to be begging him to write a post.
mcKenze says:
July 30, 2019 at 17:31
Bingo. All this hero complex crap is going to backfire on the CCW community. Someone is going to sue (and win) because a gun toting citizen did not engage a shooter.
And all that constant BS about if only there was a good guy with a gun makes it worse.
good guys (and gals) with guns prevent wheresoever between twice as many to eight times as many crimes as those committed with guns.
That is not a ‘hero complex” but a stone cold fact.
As far as suits, people who win self defense cases defending themselves or family are already successfully sued by bad guys. In most states winning a self defense case does not mean you are immune to lawsuit from even the bad guy you shot.
so yes, we do want more good guys with guns, and we do want them intervening. the data show this does reduce violence crime rates. If you have an active shooter in your office or your kids school, you are going to wish a good guy with a gun is there too, even if it just raises you odds of survival by 10% or 25%
That is a different issue than lawful gun owners knowing that in terms of code and case law, while the EXACT same conditions of threat against you also allow you to defend another with lethal force, that there are more legal risks to that.
Anything can happen at WalMart and usually does. Worst major employer in the U.S., kind of surprised something like this hasn’t happened sooner.
With due sympathy of course.
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