Accident – Death – Obituary News :

20-Year-Old Dayton Resident Identified as Gunman in Ohio Walmart Shooting

(CNN) – The man responsible for the shooting at a Walmart in Beavercreek, Ohio, on Monday night has been identified by police as 20-year-old Benjamin Charles Jones, a resident of Dayton. The incident left four people injured before the shooter took his own life.

According to Capt. Chad Lindsey, acting Beavercreek Police Department chief, Jones entered the store at around 8:35 p.m. Witnesses reported seeing him carrying a Hi-Point .45 caliber carbine long gun, a semi-automatic rifle, and firing indiscriminately at patrons as he walked through different parts of the store.

Police responded swiftly to the incident, arriving at the scene within three minutes of receiving the first 911 call. However, no shots were fired by the responding officers. The victims were immediately transported to nearby hospitals for treatment.

Three women and one man were injured in the shooting. As of Tuesday, three of them are in stable condition, while one remains in critical condition. The injuries sustained by the victims appeared to be largely random, with gunshot wounds found throughout different parts of their bodies.

Police have not released any additional information about the victims, as details about their backgrounds and races are considered part of the ongoing investigation into the motive behind the attack.

This incident marks the second deadly shooting at the same Walmart store in the past decade. In 2013, police shot and killed a Black man who was holding an air rifle he had found on a store shelf. The incident sparked outrage and calls for reform.

Capt. Lindsey shared footage from a responding officer’s body-worn camera, showcasing the agency’s swift response to the shooting. Within seven minutes of the first call, officers found the shooter on the ground near the store’s front entrance with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The police secured and cleared the building less than an hour after arriving at the scene.

Monday night’s shooting adds to the growing list of mass shootings that have tragically become commonplace in the United States. Retail stores, schools, bowling alleys, and even birthday parties have transformed into crime scenes across the country.

According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been at least 609 mass shootings in the US this year alone. The organization defines a mass shooting as an incident where four or more people are shot, excluding the shooter.

Just under a year ago, another Walmart in Chesapeake, Virginia, experienced a deadly shooting, resulting in the deaths of six people. Since then, thousands of individuals have lost their lives to gun violence in the US.

Walmart has pledged to provide emergency support to affected associates and establish an offsite resource center offering counseling. The company has not yet decided on the reopening date for the Beavercreek store.

The FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations are all involved in the investigation of this tragic incident. Students from nearby Wright State University, who often frequent the store, expressed shock and gratitude that they were not present during the shooting.

“It’s crazy thinking that we’re literally less than five minutes away where we live. They could have gone to a campus and not a Walmart, and it could have been us,” said Kailie Conley, a student at Wright State University.

This article will be updated with additional information as it becomes available.

Contributors to this report: Maria Sole Campinoti, Amanda Jackson, Lauren Mascarenhas, and Nicki Brown.

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