Five people injured in shooting at Washington state Walmart
‘The gunshots started firing, and it sounded like it was right next to us’, customer says
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Five people have been injured in a shooting at a Walmart in Mount Vernon in Washington state.
The shooting took place on Sunday night following an incident inside the store. Mount Vernon police said that three of the injured were 19-year-old men who were involved in the incident.
The other two who were injured were a 72-year-old male customer and a 24-year-old man who worked at the store.
Police responded to the scene around 9.50pm on Sunday after reports of shots being fired, King 5 reported.
The authorities said that the incident occurred after two groups of men got into an altercation during which shots were fired.
Jessica Boots told King 5 that she and her fiancée were walking toward the checkout when the shooting began.
“The gunshots started firing, and it sounded like it was right next to us,” she said. “I looked back at my fiancée because he was a little bit behind me. and everybody started screaming, running through the front doors.”
Police said three people were taken to Skagit Valley Hospital by medical workers while two arrived in private vehicles. Their conditions remain unclear.
“There is no indication that this was a situation where individuals entered the store intending an active threat event,” Mount Vernon police said.
Kristie Johnson told the local station that she was in the store at the time of the shooting with her two daughters, aged three and 14. She said she hid in the garden section of the Walmart.
“In that section of the store, there was like this big metal shelf with big boxes, and so we hid behind there, and then I called 911 to let them know where we were,” she said.
Ms Johnson said she knew several people had been shot when she spotted multiple medics coming to the store.
“At that point, all of a sudden, I mean I’ve never seen so many police, like, because we could see through the glass, we couldn’t get out,” she added. “I tried all the doors, but it was all locked up.”