A mass shooting at a grocery store in northern Indiana on Monday left three people dead – including the suspected shooter – and two police officers wounded, officials said.
Police received a 911 call at about 5.30pm about a shooting at Martin’s Super Market in Elkhart, the city police department said in a social media post. When officers arrived, they found two victims shot to death inside the store.
When police “engaged” the suspected killer outside the store, two officers were wounded and the suspect was fatally shot, according to the Elkhart police department post, which was made to update information given at an earlier news conference.
The officers were taken to hospitals with gunshot wounds, the post said. One has since been released, and the other was in stable condition, according to the post.
Dan Milanese, the Elkhart police department chief, said in a statement: “In this horrific situation, words cannot express the pain felt in our community when a tragic incident like this happens.”
The names of the victims, suspect and officers were not immediately released as authorities worked to notify families.
Erin Swary, a pregnant mother, was at the store checking out and talking with the person bagging her groceries when she heard a pop, she told the local news station WNDU. She said she first thought the sound was a balloon but then saw everyone ducking down, so she did, too.
“After that I would say there were six to eight more shots, just one right after another,” Swary said. “So, I was just down on the ground, just frozen.”
Swary said she eventually got out of the store, shaken and breathless.
In a statement on Monday night Elkhart’s mayor, Rod Roberson, asked people to continue to pray for the victims, including “our two police officers who were wounded, our heroic first responders, and those at the incident”.
Mike Braun, Indiana’s governor, said on social media that he was in contact with state and local law enforcement about the shooting.
Referencing his wife, the post said: “Maureen and I are praying for the victims and their families.”
Elkhart is about 15 miles (24km) east of South Bend, Indiana.
As of Tuesday morning, there had been at least 20 mass shootings across the US so far this year, according to the non-partisan Gun Violence Archive.
The archive defines a mass shooting as one in which four or more victims are killed or wounded.
The US’s perennially high numbers of mass shootings have driven calls among some for more substantial gun control. But US Congress has largely been unwilling or unable to heed those calls.
The Associated Press contributed reporting
