Three people, including the suspected shooter, died in an attack on Sunday night at a grocery shop in Bend, Oregon, police.
Officers had been dispatched to the Safeway at the Forum Shopping Center shortly after 7 p.m. after they had received reports of shots fired, said the Bend Police Department in a statement.
Shooting rounds from an AR-15-style rifle, the gunman was believed to have started the attack in the store’s parking lot earlier than moving inside, according to police.
One person was shot at the entrance, according to police. Medics took that victim to a hospital; however, the person was declared dead, police stated.
“Police believe the shooter continued firing shots in the store, shooting and killing an additional person,” the department said.
Dexter Chamberlin said he was at Safeway when he heard gunfire,
“We started running out the back emergency and telling different people to do the same,” he said. “We ran to a close-by apartment complex and hid at the back of some building with about a dozen other people.”
It was unclear who the suspected shooter was, who was identified only as a male, and who died; however, police stated they did not open fire at some stage in their response.
During a news conference Sunday night, Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz said police were working with a “massive crime scene” in the ongoing research into the attack.
He said police had done everything they could to follow up on potential leads and were “aware of other records floating around on social media” about the suspected shooter.
Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., gave his condolences to the victims’ households in a tweet late Sunday as he called on Americans to “come together” to bring an end to gun violence in the U.S.
“My heart breaks for the households of the victims and the various people whose routine Sunday evening shopping became a terrifying run for their lives in Bend,” Merkley said.