Off-Duty Officer Thwarts Omaha Grocery Store Shooting

A shooting at an Omaha grocery store was stopped by an off-duty deputy police chief and a concerned citizen on Tuesday evening, thankfully stopping the attack before there were any injuries.

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According to KETV in Omaha, police got a call about shots fired at a Hy-Vee grocery store just before 7 p.m.

Deputy Chief Ken Kanger tells KETV NewsWatch 7 that police found two vehicles shot in the pharmacy drive-thru.

The shooter then walked in the store and shot a front window and a monitor, according to Kanger.

Several people ran out of the store when they heard the gunfire.

Off-duty deputy chief Scott Gray was inside the store at the time and ran toward the shots. He and another customer ended up tackling the suspect and took the gun away from him.

Gray was able to take him into custody.

One woman suffered minor injuries fleeing the store, but thankfully Gray and the customer were able to subdue the suspect before anyone was shot.

We don’t yet know the suspect’s motivation, but police say the suspect was in the store’s parking lot for at least a half-hour before firing shots at the vehicles in the pharmacy drive-thru and making his way inside the store. Jason Green was inside the store with his wife when he saw the suspect stroll inside.

The customer said he saw the shooter — “black revolver, guy had black hair and was wearing black jacket” — but didn’t realize it right away.

”I didn’t think he was the shooter until I saw the gun in his hand and then my fight or flight kicked in and I ran, I was 40 feet from him,” Green said. “I was 40 feet from him, and there wasn’t anybody in between the two of us. There was nothing I could have done, knowing he was shooting.”

Green said his wife ducked down then ran out.

”She crouched in one of the aisles,” he said. “She took off, and when I looked back at him, I ran again, tried to find her, and I did find her.”

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A quick message to any criminals out there: the last place you want to be right now is in a jail cell, and while some departments are changing their arrest protocols and are no longer arresting people for some non-violent crimes, if you start shooting in a grocery store you will be heading to jail or a hospital. Neither place is where you want to be riding out the next couple of weeks.

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