A gunman opened fire at a southwestern Ohio Walmart on Monday night, wounding four people — three of them critically — and then apparently killed himself, police said.
On Tuesday, Beavercreek police identified the shooter as 20-year-old Benjamin Charles Jones of Dayton.
The first 911 call to the Beavercreek police dispatch center came in at 8:36 p.m. regarding a man walking into Walmart with a rifle, acting police chief Capt. Chad Lindsey said in a news conference Tuesday.
Officers arrived at the scene three minutes later, heard gunshots, and located the shooter on the ground with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound at 8:42 p.m., Lindsey said. The scene was secured by 9:14 p.m.
Police said no responding officers fired their weapons.
The shooter was armed with a Hi-Point .45-caliber carbine long gun. It’s not clear what motivated the shooting. The FBI is looking into the shooter’s history and is asking the public for tips about him.
Police said Tuesday that the shooter was originally from Beavercreek, had family in the area, but had moved to Dayton a year ago.
Three of the four people wounded were in critical condition late Monday. By Tuesday afternoon, three of those are now in stable condition with one in critical, but stable, condition. The fourth vicim has non-life threatening injuries.
All the victims — three women and one man — were shoppers, Lindsey said.
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the FBI and federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were on the scene assisting, Molnar said.
Walmart said it was heartbroken. “This remains a developing situation, and we’re working closely with investigators on the scene,” a spokesperson said.
The shooting comes nine years after another shooting unfolded in that same Walmart in Beavercreek, a city of around 46,000 east of Dayton. In that 2014 shooting, 22-year-old John Crawford III was shot and killed by police while holding a BB gun available for purchase at Walmart.
“It can’t help but bring back memories. It’s a tragedy all in itself,” Beavercreek Mayor Bob Stones said. “We are grieving and investigating this particular shooting.”
