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The
shooter, who lived in an apartment complex adjacent to the
store, was identified by police as Ethan Blair Miller, 20. He
took his own life before officers could fire a single shot, Bend
Police Chief Mike Krantz told reporters at a news conference.
Store employee Donald Ray Surrett Jr., 66, sought to disarm
Miller near the produce section and was slain during the
confrontation.
"He may well have prevented further deaths," Krantz said.
A customer of the store, 84-year-old Glenn Edward Bennett, was
also killed in the shooting rampage. Two other people suffered
minor injuries.
Police said Miller entered the Forum Shopping Center parking lot
about 7 p.m. on Sunday from the Fox Hollow Apartments carrying
an AR-15-style rifle and a shotgun. A second shotgun and three
Molotov cocktails were found in his car.
Officials declined to speculate on a motive for the rampage and
said they were investigating social media reports that may be
linked to the gunman. Digital devices were found at his home,
police said.
Officers responded immediately to emergency calls and entered
the store while gunshots were still being fired, Krantz said.
They found Miller dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The shooting in Bend, a community of 100,000 people 160 miles
(258 km) southeast of Portland, follows a string of mass
shootings in the United States over the last several months.
On May 14, ten people were killed in a shooting at a grocery
store in Buffalo, New York. Ten days later, a massacre at an
elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, left 19 children and two
teachers dead.
(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Chicago; Editing by Matthew
Lewis and Howard Goller)
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