No answers yet on motive, and it may be a while before we know much about the why of what took place. A mass shooting at a grocery store in Bend, Oregon left two shoppers dead and the gunmen killed, although those circumstances aren’t yet clear either:
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A gunman armed with a rifle and shotgun fired several shots in the parking lot of a northeast Bend shopping center Sunday evening, then entered a Safeway and fired numerous more shots, killing two people and sending shoppers scrambling for the exits. Officers also found the shooter dead inside the store.
Police Chief Mike Krantz told reporters at a late-night news conference they believe the man entered the shopping center parking lot from a neighborhood behind it.
An AR-15-style rifle and shotgun were found “in close proximity to the shooter” when police arrived, Krantz said, adding that police fired no shots after arriving at the store.
It sounds as though the shooter killed himself, but that’s still not yet confirmed. Police say that they didn’t fire any shots themselves. If that’s the case, then the shooter either killed himself or someone else inside the store was armed and shot him. Police have also dismissed reports of an accomplice, so if it was someone else, it was someone who was defending himself and others. It seems more likely, however, that the customers and employees managed to flee, leaving the shooter by himself with police closing in, and the perp decided to take the easy way out.
Police held a press conference a few hours later, updating reporters on the casualties but not offering a lot more. KTVZ also interviewed one of the people who managed to flee with his children, who gave some harrowing testimony. Josh Caba had high praise for the police officers who responded:
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“About 10 minutes later, we started heading to the front. Then we heard I don’t know how many shots out front – six or seven. I immediately turned to my children and said, ‘Run!’ People were screaming. … it was a horrifying experience.”
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Worried about his wife, as it turned out, “by the grace and provision of God,” when he and three of their kids burst through the big black exit doors by the produce department, his wife had driven around back and “is sitting in the car, saying ‘Get in the car! Get in the car!’”
Caba said he went back in and found their fourth child, rushing her out of the store and to the car as well. He wanted to praise police for their actions.
“When I got out of that store and the kids were rounded up, they (officers) are running into the store. They are wonderful people. They deserve all the praise and credit in the world. It is absolutely more terrifying than you can imagine to have someone shooting at your kids. They are rock stars!”
Indeed they are. We too often forget.
Until we know more about the shooter, this will be difficult to analyze, but it will almost certainly have a political impact. Oregon voters had already qualified a gun-control referendum titled the Reduction of Gun Violence Act for the ballot in November:
The proposal had less than a third of the signatures required in May, but high-profile mass shootings at a Buffalo, New York, grocery store, a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school and the Fourth of July parade violence in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park, Illinois, sent volunteer and donations pouring in, with signatures ballooning by the end of June and into this month, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported.
The measure would ban large capacity magazines over 10 rounds — except for current owners, law enforcement and the military — and require a permit to purchase any gun. To qualify for a permit, an applicant would need to complete an approved firearm safety course, pay a fee, provide personal information, submit to fingerprinting and photographing and pass a criminal background check.
The state police would create a firearms database. Applicants would apply for the permit from the local police chief, county sheriff or their designees. The National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action has denounced the initiative, saying on its website that “these anti-gun citizens are coming after YOU, the law-abiding firearm owners of Oregon, and YOUR guns.”
This shooting could make passage of Initiative 17 more likely, and could change the turnout model in the Beaver State. That may well depend on the identity of the shooter, the circumstances under which he possessed the weapons, and any prior behavior that should have sent up red flags before the shooting. Stay tuned.
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