An employee killed in a shooting at a Safeway supermarket in Bend, Oregon, attacked the gunman in the produce section and tried to disarm him, likely preventing more deaths, authorities said Monday. The 66-year-old employee, identified as Donald Ray Surrett Jr., of Bend, was hailed as a hero by police at a press conference. Surrett and a customer, 84-year-old Glenn Edward Bennett, also of Bend, were killed Sunday night. Two others were injured. “Mr. Surrett engaged the shooter, tried to disarm him and may well have prevented other deaths. Mr. Surrett acted heroically in turning this terrible event around,” Bend Police spokeswoman Sheila Miller said at a news conference as she was fighting back tears. Police said Monday that the gunman died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound near an AR-15-style rifle and a shotgun. Police identified the gunman as Ethan Blair Miller, 20, of Bend. The gunman lived in an apartment complex behind The Forum shopping centre. Witnesses said he started shooting Sunday night as soon as he left the complex and continued shooting as he pulled into the parking lot of the shopping complex and then went to Safeway. Bennett was killed at the store’s entrance, police said, and then the gunman moved through the aisles “spraying gunshots” until Sarrett confronted him in the back of the store in the produce department. The entire incident — from the initial 911 calls to officers discovering the suspect dead in the store — unfolded in four minutes, Miller said. Police entered the supermarket from the front and back as gunfire continued to ring out. Bend Mayor Pro Tem Anthony Broadman said Americans “need to guard against the cynicism of viewing these attacks on order and peace as regular, inevitable things. I will not accept it.” “We know that in the face of the chaos that we saw last night, we had brave first responders, brave citizens, people willing to stand up for their neighbors,” he added. Authorities later found three Molotov cocktails and a sawed-off shotgun in the gunman’s car. The Oregon State Police bomb squad was called in to sweep the suspect’s store, car and apartment for explosives, authorities said, forcing the evacuation of eight surrounding apartments Monday morning. Miller said reports that there was a second shooter were not true. He said reports of other shootings around Bend around the same time were also false. Authorities are seeking a search warrant to comb online material on an unspecified number of digital devices they found in the gunman’s apartment, but declined to comment on reports that the suspect posted his plans online in advance. Bend police are working with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to determine where the suspect got his guns and whether he did so legally, Miller said. “We know the shooter may have posted information online about his plan. We are investigating this,” he said. “We have no evidence of prior threats or prior knowledge of the shooter. We received information about the perpetrator’s writings after the incident. And the perpetrator has no criminal record in the area.” Those inside Safeway on Sunday described panic and chaos as the shooting unfolded. Josh Campa, a shopper at the store, told KTVZ he was with his four children when he heard multiple gunshots. “I immediately turned to my kids and said, ‘Run!’ People were screaming,” Kamba told the news agency. “It was a terrifying experience.” Oregon’s elected leaders responded to the shooting Monday with pledges to fight for more gun control. “America cannot simply shrug off yet another mass shooting with loved ones grieving the loss of family and friends,” tweeted US Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat. Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat, said in a statement that the shooting was one of several in Oregon over the weekend and that “Oregonians deserve to be safe from gun violence.” Oregonians will vote in November on one of the strictest gun control measures in the country. If passed, Measure 114 would ban high-capacity magazines of more than 10 rounds — except for current owners, law enforcement and the military — and require a permit for any gun purchase. To qualify for a permit, an applicant must complete an approved firearms safety course, pay a fee, provide personal information, be fingerprinted and photographed, and pass a criminal background check. State police will create a firearms database. Bend is a city of about 97,000 people about 160 miles (257 km) southeast of Portland, Oregon. ——– Associated Press reporter Freida Frisaro in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., contributed to this report.
