Ex-Marine slays two, then self, in US supermarket
NEW YORK—An former US Marine armed with a Kalashnikov-style automatic rifle and a handgun shot dead two people Friday at the supermarket where he worked near New York and then shot himself, officials said.
The attack took place at a Pathmark store in Old Bridge, New Jersey, shortly before 4:00 am, when employees were preparing stock for the coming day.
Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce Kaplan identified the killer as Terence Tyler, 23, and said his victims were an 18-year-old woman and a 24-year-old man.
“There are three dead individuals,” Kaplan told a news conference. “Two of those individuals were innocent victims and the third deceased is the shooter who we believe killed himself.”
All three were employees at the supermarket, which had not yet opened to the public for the day.
Kaplan said the gunman finished his night shift and returned minutes later with the weapons. He then started to shoot, firing at least 16 times.
About a dozen people were in the store at the time and most were able to hide, Kaplan said.
The Middlesex County Prosecutor’s office said the killer, who was discharged from the Marine Corps in 2010, wore desert camouflage and opened fire without warning.
After firing from his rifle, Tyler “drew a handgun and shot himself,” the prosecutor’s office said. “There was no exchange of shots between the gunman and police.”
The Asbury Park Press reported that Tyler’s female victim had only graduated from high school this summer and was on her first night shift at the supermarket, the newspaper reported, while the male victim was attending a local college.
Congressman Frank Pallone, who represents New Jersey, said the bloodshed was further proof of the need to restrict gun sales in the country.
“Sadly, throughout our nation it is becoming all too common to wake up to the news of more Americans dying as a result of gun violence, and this time, it has hit even closer to home,” he said in a statement.
“One thing we do know is that these weapons have no practical civilian use and their only purpose is to kill a lot of people quickly.”
Mass shootings are a regular occurrence in the United States, most recently including bloody episodes at a movie theater in Colorado, where 12 people died in July, and at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, where six people were killed in August.
