Authorities are searching for a man who opened fire Monday at a grocery store in Washington state, killing one person and injuring another.
The suspect in the shooting at a Fred Meyer store in Richland is Aaron Christopher Kelley, 39, police said late Monday. The suspect fled the store after the shooting, though it was not known he left by foot or in a vehicle, Richland police Commander Chris Lee said. The suspect has had contact with law enforcement in the past, police said.
Dispatchers received a call reporting yelling and possible gunshots in the store at 11:03 a.m. The first officers responding arrived just one minute later, police said.
Richland interim Police Chief Brigit Clary said responding officers found the two victims in close proximity to one another in the store and said al-though life-saving measures were tried, one had already died. The other, a store employee, was taken to a hospital, she said. He had undergone surgery and was listed in critical condition, police said Monday afternoon. Both were described as white males. Their names haven’t been released.
“What happened in our city today was a sense-less and tragic act,” Clary said. The suspect and the victim who died had an interaction before the shoot-ing, according to store video footage seen by police. Police said they don’t know what the apparent con-versation entailed and don’t know if the two people knew each other. —AFP
