Former Walmart employee who was fired last year targeted specific people in shooting, police say
Emergency responders work the scene of a shooting at the West Side Walmart located in Evansville
By Tina Burnside, Hannah Sarisohn and Sara Smart, CNN
At least one person was wounded in a shooting at a Walmart in Evansville, Indiana, on Thursday night, with the suspected gunman later shot and killed by responding law enforcement, according to the Evansville Police Department.
Police identified the suspect as 25-year-old Ronald Ray Mosley II, who was fired from Walmart in May, according to police spokesperson Sgt. Anna Gray said in a Friday afternoon news conference.
Mosley was fired after being arrested for multiple battery charges against other employees, Gray said.
He left a suicide note at his house on Thursday night, Police Chief Billy Bolin said.
Mosley had regularly attended mental health court hearings after being arrested on battery charges, Vanderburgh County Prosecuting Attorney Diana Moers said in Friday’s news conference.
Individuals who are admitted to a mental health court participate in a supervised treatment plan with regular reviews of progress hearings, according to an Indiana state website.
Mosley attended mental health court nearly every two weeks and had attended a hearing on Thursday afternoon related to the battery cases, Moers said.
Store’s team lead was a hero, police say
Police first heard reports of a shooting at 9:59 p.m., Gray said at a news conference late Thursday night.
The shooting started after Mosley went into a break room in the back of the store when a meeting was about to begin, Bolin said Friday. Roughly 40 shoppers were in the store at the time, police said.
“He told everybody to line up against the wall, he had a gun in his hand, and he told two of them to stay in the middle. He ends up shooting a female at this point,” the chief added. The woman was shot in the face and is still being treated at a hospital in stable condition, according to police.
Bolin said there was another male in the room that was also an “intended target” but he took off running during the shooting. Authorities did not identify the man and woman that the shooter pointed out nor their relationship to Mosley.
When officers arrived, they encountered the suspect who fired multiple times at officers, Gray said. Officers fired back, killing the suspect.
No officers were injured during the encounter with the suspect.
During Friday’s news conference, Bolin called the store’s team lead a hero.
He said that when the shooter began firing, the shift lead “took off out the door and she ran and called 911.”
The team lead later ran back into the break room after seeing the suspect leave the area and helped the wounded woman go into another room and hide.
The investigation remains ongoing, police said.
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